^DE 
 
GIFT 
 HORACE W. 
 
OP KING PEIYADAKSL ^,ll''^J V'A ''iSleY'. 
 
 Calcutta Translation. M. Burnonf. Proposed Translation. 
 
 The scriptures of the 
 Munis (the Vedas) are 
 observed by their disci- 
 ples ; their future state 
 is to be dreaded : the 
 texts of the Vedas, in 
 which the sacrifice (of 
 animals) is enjoined are 
 mean and false : obey 
 them not. 
 
 The stanzas of the 
 Solitary (Buddha), the 
 sntras of the Solitary, 
 the speculations of Upa- 
 tissa, solely the instruc- 
 tion of Rahula, rejecting 
 the false doctrines. 
 
 (and refuted), the 
 
 of the Munis, the sutras 
 
 of the Munis, (the jjrac- 
 
 tices) of inferior ascetics, 
 
 the censure of a light 
 
 world, and (all) false 
 
 doctrines. 
 
 Follow that which the 
 lord Buddha hath com- 
 manded : do so for the 
 glorification of the faith. 
 
 This is what has 
 been said by the blessed 
 Buddha : these topics 
 which the law embraces, 
 I desire, Sirs, and it is 
 the glory to which I am 
 most attached. 
 
 These things as de- 
 clared by the divine 
 Buddha, I proclaim and 
 I desire them to be re- 
 garded as the precepts of 
 the law. 
 
 This I desire that all of 
 ye priests and priestesses, 
 religious men and reli- 
 gious women ; yea, every 
 one of you hearing this, 
 bear it in your hearts. 
 
 This my pleasure I 
 have caused to be writ- 
 ten: yea, I have devised 
 it. 
 
 That the male and 
 female ascetics may hear 
 and meditate upon them 
 constantly ; as well as 
 the faithful of both sexes. 
 
 It is for that purpose 
 that I have caused this 
 to be written — such is 
 my pleasure and my 
 declaration. 
 
 And that as many as 
 there may be, male and 
 female mendicants, may 
 hear and observe them, 
 constantly as well also as 
 male and female followers 
 (of the laity). 
 
 These things I affirm, 
 and have caused this to 
 be written (to make 
 known to you) that such 
 will be my intention. 
 
 O'i-vH^Xw -^ '^ 
 
/: 
 
 368 
 
 Art. XXII. — The Chinese on the Plain of Shinar, or a connection 
 established between the Chinese and all other Nations through 
 their Theology. By the Rev. T. M'Clatchi k, M. A,, Missionary 
 to the Chinese from the Church Missionary Society. 
 {Read Fehruarij 16, 1856.] 
 
 PRKFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 No one who takes the trouble to investigate the various Mythological 
 systems of the Heathen world, can fail to be struck with the very 
 remarkable similarity which exists between them. To account for 
 this similarity is an interesting, and, at first sight, a difficult under- 
 taking. 
 
 The Pagan world may be regarded in two points of view, viz. : 
 either before their dispersion at Babel, when the several nations were 
 in embryo and the human race formed one community on'the plain of 
 Shinar; or, after the dispersion, when this commuuity, broken up 
 into various tribes, scattered over the face of the earth, and colonized 
 the various regions of the world. 
 
 With regard then to the striking similarity which exists between 
 the different systems of Pagan Idolatry, the first question for con- 
 sideration is this — Is the similarity mentioned of such a nature as to 
 be easily and naturally accounted for on the supposition that after the 
 dispersion, and subsequent to their settlement, each nation (including 
 the Chinese) independently oi all the rest, adopted a system of theology 
 which nevertheless coincided in many particulars with all the others 1 
 
 There is no doubt that this theory will, to a certain extent, account 
 for the resemblance alluded to. For instance, no one who contem- 
 plates the sun, the dispenser of light and heat, who nourishes the 
 earth with his genial warmth; the moon "walking in brightness ;" 
 and the stars, which with subdued light, wander through infinite 
 ethereal space, can fail to be struck with, and to admire the beauty of 
 these orbs, and the silent majesty with which they glide along their 
 allotted paths : and it would not be very surprising, therefore, if each 
 Pagan nation, being removed from the light of revelation, should have 
 adopted independ^entJy of all the rest, the same worship of the heavenly 
 host. 
 
 Nor can we regard it as at all impossible that idolatrous nations 
 should also agree with each other, without any previous concert or 
 communication, in worshipping such of their deceased ancestors as had, 
 during their lifetime, secured the rcsi^ect and admiration of their 
 contemporaries, cither by their warlike achievements, or by their 
 
nn/y 
 
 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 369 
 
 benevolent actions. We may especially grant tbe probability of tbis 
 when we consider tbat religious worsbip may be, as regards the 
 unenlightened Heathen, a natural consequence of the reverence, blended 
 with affection, with which the memory of such public benefactors as 
 those alluded to, is cherished. '■'■ If such persons," argue the Chinese, 
 as they think, conclusively, '•' be worthy of respect and veneration 
 while living, why should we not continue to exhibit respect and vene- 
 ration towards them when they are dead % Would you trample upon, 
 or show disrespect to, the remains of your deceased parent ? Why 
 then should not we continue to venerate, after death, those who, when 
 alive, commanded by their good deeds the respect and admiration of 
 all mankind ?" 
 
 In the general worship, therefore, of the heavenly host, and of 
 deceased ancestors, we have an agreement between the various systems 
 of the Pagan world in what may be considered " obvious and natural ;" 
 and there is nothing very remarkable, so far, in the similarity which 
 exists between all the systems of the Heathen. 
 
 These various system.s, however, do not merely agree in what is 
 " obvious and natural;" but they also agree, in a most singular manner, 
 in what is "arbitrary, and circumstantial, and artificial :" and tkh 
 agreement cannot be accounted for on the hypothesis mentioned. 
 
 Not to dwell unnecessarily upon this point, it will be sufficient 
 merely to mention two of the many striking agreements alluded to ; 
 e. g. 1. The chief God of every Pagan system, without exception, is. 
 designated "Mind " (Now? or Mens.) 2. This chief God, whose body 
 is the universe, triplicates and also divides into eight portions in each 
 system. Now, it is quite impossible to believe that each Pagan nation, 
 independently of all the rest, not only chose the same designation for 
 their chief God, but also chose the numbers three and eight, without 
 any previous concert or communication whatever. With regard to the 
 Triad and Ogdoad, the case is even stronger than with regard to the 
 remarkable designation "Mind." For, it will be found on investiga- 
 tion, that the universe does not naturally fall into these divisions of 
 three and eight, inasmuch as the details of these numbers vary con- 
 sideraldy in each system ; so that we are driven to the conclusion that 
 the numbers three and eight were fi st chosen, and then the stubborn 
 universe was made, however reluctantly, to bend to them. 
 
 Hence, as the various theological systems of the Pagan world 
 (including the Chinese) all agree in so remarkable a manner, not 
 merely in what is "obvious and natural," but also in "arbitrary 
 circumstantials," which could not have been the case if each nation 
 
 4G27:c 
 
370 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 had framed its own system indepciidentl}' of all the rest, and after its 
 final settlement, the inevitable conclusion must be as follows : — 
 
 " The common arbitrary opinions and observances, which alike 
 prevail in every part of the globe, must have had a common origin^ 
 and each national system, however some minor differences might 
 distinguish it from all other national systems, must have been equally 
 a shoot from a jyi'iineval system so vigorous as to extend its ramifications 
 to all countries of the habitable world." — Faber's Origin of Pag. Idol., 
 vol. i., p. 60. 
 
 The fact of the common origin of all the Pagan systems being thus 
 established, the next difiiculty is to discover this source of idolatry. 
 Can we suppose that subsequent to the dispersion, and their several 
 settlements, all the other nations adopted the system framed by one 1 
 
 Here we are met by two difiiculties ; first, those who adopt this 
 theory difl"er considerably as to what nation formed the model for 
 imitation to the rest. Some say Egypt, some Phenicia, some India, 
 and some Hindostan. All is uncertainty. And even if this point 
 were set at rest, then comes the difficult task of accounting "for the 
 extraordinary circumstance, that all nations upon the face of the earth, 
 whether seated in Europe or Asia, or in Africa, or in America, 
 should have been content to borrow with rare unanimity, the religious 
 system of one single people."^ — Ibid. p. 62. 
 
 Nor can we adopt the hypothesis, based upon the supposition that 
 the children of Cush and a few followers, were ah)ne concerned in the 
 apostasy of Babel, that all nations, after their settlement, were con- 
 quered by this roving tribe, and were compelled to adopt its idolatrous 
 system. It is not easy to admit that "a single tribe, and that too 
 broken into small fragments by an eminent display of divine vengeance* 
 could manage to subdue and convert all the rest of mankind, who had 
 previously retired in a prosperous and orderly manner to their 
 appointed settlements." — Ibid. p. 03. 
 
 We are therefore obliged to adopt the third and only remaining 
 hypothesis, viz. : that " all nations while yet in embryo, and during 
 these ages of the infancy of society which immediately followed the 
 deluge were assembled together in one community, previous to their 
 separation and dispersion over the face of the earth, and in that state 
 of primitive union agreed in the adoption of a system, which when 
 afterwards broken into tribes the germs of future nations tliey equally 
 carried with them into whatever region they might at any subsequent 
 time be induced to colonize." — Ibid. p. 61. 
 
 This last proposition Mr. Fabcr, in his learned and interesting 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 371 
 
 work, shows to be in accordance with the scriptural history of Nimrod 
 and the tower of Babel, and also with profane history. Alluding to 
 the founding of the universal empire under Nimrod, that learned 
 author observes: — 
 
 " In the short account which Moses gives of this early transaction, 
 no direct mention is made of any attempt to introduce a new system 
 of religion ; though something of the kind seems to be hinted at in 
 the assertion that nothing could restrain the roving imagination of 
 this rebellious community ; but the Jews have ever supposed that 
 idolatry commenced at Babel ; whence they have a story that Abraham 
 was cast into a furnace by Nimrod for refusing to worship the sacred 
 fire which was the symbol of the solar deity. We have, however, far 
 better authority than Jewish tradition, though I see no reason why we 
 should slight it as altogether nugatory, for asserting that the first 
 systematic apostasy from pure religion was consummated at Babel, 
 and that from that centre it spread itself over the whole world. The 
 prophet of the Apocalypse styles Babylon or Babel the vxolher of 
 harlots and ahominations of the earth ; by which it need scarcely be 
 observed is meant, in the figurative language of scri])ture, that all the 
 abominations of apostate idolatry originated from that city as from a 
 common parent/' &c. 
 
 " Thus so far as I can judge, it indisputably appears that the 
 idolatry by which ail the nations of the earth were infatuated, was a 
 system originally invented at Babel under the auspices of Nimrod 
 and his Cuthites, and afterwards in progress of replenishing the world 
 with inhabitants by the various scattered members of his broken 
 empire, carried off alike to the nearest, and to the most remote 
 countries of the globe." &c. — Ibid. pp. 77-8. 
 
 Having thus briefly stated Mr. Faber's argument, I now proceed 
 to the inquiry which forms the subject of the following pages. The 
 question I propose is this — Were the ancestors of the Chinese to be 
 found amongst the ancient community who engaged in building the 
 tower of Babel on the plain of Shinar, or not ? In order to establish 
 an affirmative answer to this inquiry, it will be necessary to investigate 
 Chinese theology, and there to search for any traces which may exist 
 of the one general primeval system of idolatry established previous to 
 the building of Babel. If we find that the Chinese have also traces of 
 this one system, and that they agree with all other nations not only in 
 the adoption of what is " obvious and natural," but also in "arbitrary 
 circumstantials," while they diff'er from them as to detail, then the 
 conclusion is inevitable that this nation also has derived its theology 
 from the one source common to all, and was therefore represented in 
 
372 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 the siiii^le community which existed subsequent to the tleluge, and 
 the members of which agreed to adopt that one system which was 
 afterwards carried by them, when broken into tribes, into the several 
 nations wliich they founded. Thus we shall be able to establish a 
 remarkable connection between the Chinese and all other heathen 
 nations through their theology and to show that they do not in reality 
 occupy so isolated a position among the nations of the earth as has 
 been hitherto so generally assigned them. 
 
 The principal points which I shall endeavour to establish are — 
 1. That as all other Pagan nations, however they may worship multi- 
 tudes of divinities, yet hold the existence of one God, kut c^oxnv, 
 the First Cause of all things, so also d.) the Chinese recognise this 
 First Cause, and assign to him precisely the same titles and attributes 
 as those given to him by the rest of the Pagan world ; 2. That those 
 portions of the animated world, kc, which all other nations have 
 designated " God," the Chinese also so designate ; and 3. That the 
 chief object of idolatrous worship in China, viz. Shnng-te, is a deified 
 man, and is the same Being designated by Mr. Faber the " Great 
 Father" of the Pagan world, who is Adam or Noah, and is designated 
 by the several nations who worship him Baal, Jupiter, Osiris, Brahm, 
 &c., or Now*, Mens, Menu, Man, kc. The Triad and Ogdoad, two of 
 "those "arbitrary circumstantials" which, together with variety of^ 
 detail, prove that the several heathen nations have derived their 
 theology, not from any single nation, but from one source common to 
 all, are also to be found in the Chinese system. 
 
 It may be necessary to observe here, that the two polytheistic 
 systems found in all Pagan nations, viz. that which admits of visible 
 representations of the Gods, and that which is designated the material 
 system (and which are in reality but one and the same system) are 
 both found in China. The Confucianists, like all other materialists, 
 reject the absurdities of the grosser polytheistic sects, and make their 
 deities souls or portions of the animated material world, which is 
 regarded by this sect as the greatest Numen, and as a divine animal 
 endowed with life. It is this latter system, being that inculcated in 
 the Chinese Classics, which the following pages are intended to 
 elucidate. 
 
 I. GOU, vr/-' r^'oX'/"- 
 
 1. The charge brought by the Apostle again.'^t the heathen world 
 is, that they " worshii)ped and served the ocaiure, more than the 
 Creator." This was a consequence of their mode of reasoning; for, 
 instead of arguing from creation to the existence of a God of all 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 373 
 
 power and miglit, they subjected the Crecator himself to those laws 
 by which his creation is governed. This constituted their fundamental 
 error, from which all their misconcejitions sprang. As they saw that 
 the mechanic, for instance, could not produce any work of art, without 
 some material to work upon, they rashly concluded that God was such 
 an one as themselves in this respect, and that therefore He could not 
 make the world without some previously existing material out of 
 which to form it, and hence all the Pagan philosophers without 
 exception held that God made the world out of pre-existing, eternal 
 matter. 
 
 " All philosophers," says Gassendi, " agree in the pre-existeuce of 
 the matter of which the universe is composed, because nothing can be 
 produced from nothing ; whereas, however, scripture truth declares 
 that the universe was created out of nothing and from no material."— 
 Cud worth's Intellec. Syst. vol. iii., p. 144. 
 
 These philosophers, however, may be divided into two classes. 
 In the Jird class may be ranked those who, like Plato and others, 
 while they associated God and eternal matter, and supposed a certain 
 connection between those two, yet did not make the former wholly 
 dependent upon the latter ; and in the second class may be included 
 those who, like the Stoics, inseparably united the two, and held that 
 the one could not exist separate from the other. 
 
 2. The Chinese philosophers, like Anaximenes and others, conside 
 the material origin of all things to be K'e or Air, which is the primary 
 matter from which all things are formed.— (See Morrison's Dictionary, 
 part ii., vol. i.. No. 531 1.) 
 
 This K'e, or Matter, is considered by them to be eternal, and it is 
 associated with an eternal, ungenerated, and therefore self-existent 
 First Cause, which the Confucianists generally style Le or Fate (see 
 Ibid. No. 6942). And as the other Pagans have designated this 
 Eternal Fate " God," and declared him to be " Incomprehensible," 
 so also the Chinese philosophers designate him " God," and predicate 
 of him the same attribute of incomprehensibility ; e. g. :— 
 
 " Le is God (Shin) and is Incom'prehendUe." — Sing-le-ta-tseuen, 
 eh. ii., p. 36. 
 
 " Being asked whether the God (Suin) spoken of is the Maker 
 and Transformer of heaven and earth, he (Choo-tsze) replied God 
 (Shin) is just that Le," &c.— Ibid. p. 35. 
 
 " They (the Chinese) often say Le is God (Shin)."— Morrison's 
 Memoirs of Dr. Milne, p. IGl. 
 
 As the Pagans considered all things to depend upon their God, 
 Kuj e^ox'ji', for existence, so do the Chinese philosophers ; e. g. :— 
 
 VOL. XVI. 2 C 
 
374 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 " If this Le liad no existence, then, there ivould he no heaven, nor 
 earth, nor vien, nor thm<is ; all would be without a connecting bond." 
 — Choo-tsze's Complete Works, ch. xlix., p. 3. 
 
 This God and eternal matter, the Confucianists, like the Stoics, 
 consiiler to be inseparably united together, so that the one cannot 
 exist without the other ; e. g. : — 
 
 " Le being eternal, K'e is eternally united with it." — Ibid, 
 ch. xlix. 10. 
 
 " Le is not a separate thing, he rests in the midst of the K'e ; if 
 there were no K'e, then Le would not have anything to rest upon." — 
 Ibid. ch. xlix., 1. 
 
 " Separated from K'e, there is no God (Shin) ; separated from 
 God (Shin), there is no K'e," &c. — The two Chings, &c., vol. i., p. 52. 
 " All (material) things have visible traces, but God (Shin) who 
 is in their midst (inherent in all things) is invisible. God (Shin) is 
 never separate from matter. Hence God (Shin) is the Incomprehen- 
 sible One who is in the midst of (i. e. inherent in) all thing.?, and 
 renders them mysterious," &c. — Yih-king, vol.xii., 17, 13 Com. (Imp. 
 edit.) 
 
 The same law, also, which led the rest of the Pagan world to 
 associate eternal matter with God, is also recognised by the Confu- 
 cianists ; e. g. : — 
 
 " .... As in the world men and things, grass and trees, birds 
 and beasts are all generated from seed, and there is nothing tvhich is 
 without a seed, if unsown soil produces a single thing, this is the 
 K'e," &c. — Choo-tsze's Le and K'e, sentence 10. 
 
 " Ex nihilo nihil fit," and hence when anything appears to spring 
 up spontaneously, the K'e or primary matter is considered to be the 
 seed whence it is produced. 
 
 3. Matter, although considered eternal, was yet held by many to 
 have been generated by the Deity. It is stated, for instance, in the 
 Timai'us, cU. ix., that tUe universe was generated by its "Creator and 
 Father;" and Plato is supposed to have followed Hermes and the 
 Egyptians in thus holding that " the matter emanated from the Deity 
 or divine nature itself." — (Cudworth, vol. i., p. 570, note.) Such is 
 also the Confucian doctrine ; e. g. : — 
 
 " Le existing, K'e is afterwards generated.'"— Choo-tsze's Works, 
 ch. xlix. p. 1. 
 
 " Le generated the K'e." — Siiig-lo-ta-tseuon, ch xxx., p. 10. 
 Thus while the Confucianists associate eternal matter with God, 
 they yet consider that the former was generated by the latter, or in 
 other words, that matter is inferior to God, not in time, but by nature, 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 375 
 
 and this was the doctrine held by Probus, Simplicius, and all the later 
 Platonists.— (See Cudworth, vol. i., p. 302, note.) 
 
 This Le inherent in K'e, or God and xMatter, form the one com- 
 pound source of all things. 
 
 " With regard to the one origin of all things, their Le is the same, 
 but their K'e is diverse." — Choo-tsze's Works, ch. xlix., 7. 
 
 And this Le or God is like the Stoical Geo? Ka-r e^oxqv, the only 
 Incorporeal thing in the universe ; for, 
 
 " Le is Incorporeal, K'e is Corporeal." — Ibid. p. 1. 
 
 4. Various names and titles were given to the Geo? kot e^ox^p' by 
 the Pagan philosophers ; e. g., Fate, Reason, Incorporeal Reason, 
 Providence, Nature, Heaven, &.c. He was considered to be a perfect 
 indivisible unity ; the Immoveable Author of all motion ; Incom- 
 prehensible and Hidden ; and was said to pervade all things, &c. 
 His proper names were Jupiter, Baal, Mithras, Hamnion, &c., ac- 
 cording as he was designated by the various Pagan nations. — See 
 Cudworth, vol. i., 196, note; 423-4; vol. ii., 9, 14, note; 108-9, 
 148. Also Enfield's Hist, of Philos. vol. i., p. 334, &c. 
 
 Precisely the same designations, &c., are given by the Chinese 
 Confucianists to their Shin kut e^oxyv ; e. g. : — 
 
 a. " Heaven," " Providence,''' &c. 
 
 " Being asked the difference between (the titles) •' Heaven ' and 
 'Providence,' 'Nature' and ' Le,' and whether 'Heaven' refers to 
 his self-existence, 'Providence' to his flowing forth, and being con- 
 ferred upon all things ; ' Nature,' to the substance {i. e. God and 
 matter together), which the myriad of things obtain in order to 
 exist ; and ' Le,' to each matter and thing having its own law ; yet 
 spoken of unitedly, then ' Heaven,' ' Le,' ' Providence,' and ' Nature,' 
 all designate the same being ; is this correct 1 He (Choo-tsze) replied: 
 Just so ; some persons, however, now assert that ' Heaven' does not 
 refer to the azure sky; yet, in my opinion, the azure sky must not he 
 omittfd" — Choo-tsze's Work's, ch. xlii. p. 1. 
 
 Thus the Confucianist Shin, nar' e^ox^jv, is indifferently styled 
 " Fate (Le)," " Nature," " Heaven," or " Providence." In the title 
 " Heaven," however, is included the material Heaven (or K'e), in 
 which this Supreme God is inherent when the world is arranged by 
 him from chaos. These different titles of this Supreme Shin, Choo- 
 tsze also states in the above passage, refer to his various powers ; so 
 also the Geo? kut' e^oxrji', 
 
 " You may mention nature, fate, fortune ; names of this kind are 
 all naines of God variously employing his poiver." — Cudwort^j, vol, i., 
 p. 249, note, 
 
 2 C 2 
 
376 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 b. " Reason," or " Incoiyoreal Reasrm.'^ 
 
 " Le is Incorporeal Reason, the Orif/m of life; K'e is the corporeal 
 vessel, the Receptacle of life." — Clioo-tsze's Works, eh. xlix. 5. 
 
 " That which is Incorporeal is Reason, that which is corporeal is 
 the Receptacle. 'Incorporeal' refers to Le ; 'corporeal,' to matter 
 and things." — Sing-le-ta-tseuen, ch. xxxiv. p. 22. 
 
 " That which is Incorporeal is Reason, that which is corporeal is 
 the Receptacle." Coin. "Reason is Incorporeal, the God (Shin) who 
 renders all things mysterious," c'i;c. — Yih-king, vol. ii., 14, 33. 
 
 c. " A^ature." 
 
 " Nature is the entire Heavenly Le ; when we speak of Nature, 
 we include the K'e." — Choo-tsze's Works, ch. xlix. 11. 
 
 " . . . . Yet if we always consider the K'e to be Nature, and 
 Nature to be the K'e, we do not clearly understand the subject." — 
 Ibid. ch. xliii.. 10. 
 
 Thus under this one title " Nature," two things totally different 
 are included by the Confucianists ; viz.. Fate or God, the Maker of 
 the universe, and the Matter from which he forms it ; yet, these two 
 although inseparably united, must not be confounded, for this title is 
 only given to the K'e or primary matter, in consequence of the meJlor 
 natiira inherent in it. Thus, also, — 
 
 " The Stoics divide nature into two parts; one, that which works; 
 the other, that which offers itself to be wrought upon. In the former 
 is the power of acting, in the latter is simple matter, nor is one able 
 to do anything without the other. Thus under one term of nature, 
 they comprehend two things very diverse, God and the world, the 
 artificer and the work, and they say that one cannot do without the 
 other, as if nature were God mixed up with the ivorld. For sometimes 
 they so confound things, that God becomes the very soul of the world, 
 and the world the body of God." — Cudworth, vol. i., p. 196, note. 
 
 " What is nature, says Seneca, but the Divine Reason inherent in 
 the ivhole universe and in all its parts? Or, you may call him if you 
 please, the author of all things." — Enfield's Hist. Philos. vol. i, 
 p. 334. 
 
 d. "'The Great E.vtreine." 
 
 " The Great Extreme is Incorporeal Reason," etc. — Sing-le-ta- 
 tsouen, ch. i., p. 12. 
 
 '• lieason is the Great Extreme of the Yih-king (Classic)." — Choo- 
 isze's Works, ch. xlix., IC. 
 
 " The Great Extreme is Le." — Ibid. p. S. 
 
 This title of the Sum, kut <'^oxriv, is derived, we are tolil by 
 Choo-tsze, from "a pivot," or from " the centre beam of a hou-e,' 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 377 
 
 q,nd it corresponds to the title " Tigilluni," giveu to the Supreme 
 Zev^ or 9eos' Kcn' efox'/"- Hence he is the great source whence all 
 things emanate ; e. g.: — 
 
 " The Original Extreme obtains this designation from the idea of 
 a pivot. The sages meant by the Great Extreme the Root ofH eaven, 
 Earth, and all things; hence Choo-tsze designated him ' The Infinite,' 
 {uiretpov, see Cudworth, vol. ii., p. 47), and thus placed his imma- 
 teriality beyond a doubt." - Choo-tsze's T'ae-keih, sentence 13. 
 
 e. He is an indivisible Unity or Monad, 
 
 " Heaven divides and becomes Earth, Earth divides and becomes 
 the myriad of things, but Reason cannot he divided," &c.— Sing-le-ta- 
 tseuen, ch. ii., p. 22. 
 
 " Body is divisible, but God (Shin) cannot he divided." — Ibid. 
 p. 34. 
 
 " The Great Extreme is Unity and without compare." — Choo-tsze's 
 Works, T'ae-keih, sentence 27. 
 
 Hence he pervades all things without division of his substance ; 
 e.g.: — 
 
 " Being asked, with regard to Le being Unity, and when distri- 
 buted amongst the myriad of things to pervade them, then the myriad 
 of things have each a Great Extreme within it ; according to this can 
 the Great Extreme be divided into portions? He (Choo-tsze) replied: 
 in reality, there is but one Great Extreme, and each of the myriad of 
 things have received it, and each has within it a complete Great 
 Extreme ; for instance, the moon in heaven is but one, and when it 
 is scattered amongst the rivers, then it is seen in each, yet we cannot 
 say that the moon is divided." — Choo-tsze's Works, ch. xlix. p. 10. 
 
 " God (Shin) is "Unity; he rides upon the K'e, and changes and 
 transforms it," &c. — Sing-le-la-tseuen, ch. xi., p. 33. 
 
 So also Parmenides and Xenophanes " affirmed that the one or 
 unity was the first principle of all ; matter itself, as well as other 
 things being derived from it; they meaning by this one, that highest 
 or Supreme God who is overall.'' — Cudworth, vol. ii., p. 38 
 
 /. He is the Immoveable Author of all motion. 
 
 " Le has (the power of producing) motion and rest, and therefore 
 the K'e moves and rests. If Le had not this (power of producing) 
 motion and rest, then how could the K'e of itself move or rest !" — 
 Choo-tsze's Works, ch. xlix. 8. 
 
 " We cannot predicate motion or rest of Le ; but that which 
 moved and generated the Light, rested and generated the Darkness, 
 
378 ' CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 is Le inherent in the K'e, and which therefore cannot but move and 
 rest. He rests upon the pivot as in a chariot, and thus is not affected 
 hy the motion or rest." — Ibid, p, 32. 
 
 Hence in the language of the philosophers this Supreme God 
 " moves, yet moves not ; rests, yet rests not ; i. e., he confers these 
 powers upon the primary matter in which he is inherent, while he 
 himself is not aflfected by either the motion or the rest, occupying as 
 he does " the pivot," or centre of motion. 
 
 " That which when at rest cannot move, and when in motion 
 cannot rest, is Matter; that which moves, yet moves not, rests, yet 
 rest not, is God (Shin)." — Ibid. 
 
 The 6eo9 Kur el^oxv^ ^^ designated by Aristotle "to Trpd'jov kivovv 
 aKivrjTov, the first immoveable mover." — Cudworth, vol. ii., p. 84. 
 
 g. He is Omnij) resent, and the Author of all change and trans- 
 formation. 
 
 " Confucius said, He who comprehends the doctrine of change 
 and transformation, understands what God (Shin) accomplishes." — 
 Com. " The acts of God (Shin) are incomprehensible ; we must 
 look at change and transformation in order to understand them. God 
 (Shin) is omnipresent* in the midst of all these changes and trans- 
 formations." — Yih-king, ch. xiv., 16. 
 
 Having, however, exhausted all their powers of imagination in 
 devising names and titles by which to designate their Supreme God, 
 the philosophers acknowledge how far he is above all these, and hence 
 they designate him "Woo ming," or "the nameless One." 
 
 God (Shin) is not confined to place and is omnipresent ; he unites 
 himself to tJie mind of man, which thus has its origin in Unity. 
 Reason and Unity are but forced names of God (Shin) : if we con- 
 sider God (Shin) to be God (Shin), this is the best appellation." — 
 Sing le-ta-tseuen, ch. xii., 2. 
 
 " According to the old Egyptian theology .... God is said to 
 have both no name and every name." — Cudworth, vol. ii., p. 259. 
 
 h. He is Empty Space or Incorporeal Vacmim. 
 
 " Le is a bare empty, wide world, without corporeal vestiges," &c. 
 — Choo-tsze's Works, Le and K'e, sentence 10. 
 
 " Reason is the Great Vacuum, and is Incorporeal." — Sing-le-ta- 
 tseuen, vol. xii,, 1. 
 
 ' We liave here an instance of the very different meaning attached to the 
 same word by the Ileatlien and by Christians, By the Omnipresence of God, 
 the former mean that he is present in all things, whereas wc mean by tliat term 
 that ail things are present Co God. 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 379 
 
 By this " Great Vacuum," is meant the infinite Empty Space in 
 which the universe revolves, and in which the latter is contained or 
 comprehended. 
 
 " This Principle (Le) is so great, that it comprehends heaven and 
 earth, and is the support of generation and tVansformation; so minute, 
 that it enters into every fibre and particle; there is no distance which 
 it cannot traverse, and there is nothing so mean that it does not reach 
 it ; yet we must discern what it is which thus pervades (all things)." 
 -^Choo-tsze's Works, ch. xli., 15; xlvi., 12. 
 
 So also Philo held that " God is that space which surrounds and 
 encompasses the tvhole nature of things.'" — Cudworth, vol. iii., p. 242, 
 note. 
 
 Onatus the Pythagorean says, " It seemeth to me that there is not 
 only one God, hut that there is one the greatest and highest God that 
 governeth the whole world, &.c. That is that God who contains and 
 comprehends the ivhole ivorld," S)'c. — Cudworth, vol. i,, p. 374. 
 
 i. He is Hidden. 
 
 " I have already said that the Great Extreme is (like one who) 
 hides his head,'' &c. — Choo-tsze's Works, T'ae-keih, sentence 19. 
 
 " Amnion, in his books, calleth God 7iiost hidden, and Hermes 
 plainly declareth that it is hard to conceive God, but impossible to 
 express him." — Cudworth, vol. i., p. 564. 
 
 k. He animates the K'e or Matter in which he is inherent, and is 
 thus the Supreme Soul of the animated universe. 
 
 " K e accumulated forms Body; Le unites with it, and then it 
 has the power of intellect and perception; just as when oil is poured 
 upon fire, then there is much flame," &c. — Choo-tsze's Works, Le and 
 K'e, sentence 22. 
 
 Hence the world (or arranged K'e) is an animal endowed with 
 life and reason, and is the hody of God who pervades all its parts. 
 Plotinus thus states the opinion of the ancient philosophers on this 
 point : 
 
 '' It is absurd to affirm that Heaven (or the World) is inanimate, 
 or devoid of life and soul, when we ourselves, who have but a part of 
 the mundane body in us, are endued with soul. For how could a 
 part have life and soul in it, the whole being dead and inanimate?" 
 This one soul of the world and whole mundane animal was by the 
 Stoics and others considered to be " the yrpicTo? Geo?, the Jirst and 
 highest God of all." — Cudworth, vol. ii., p. 176. 
 
 5. The title Le is chiefly given to the Shin, kut c^ox^ji', in chaos, 
 e. g. :— 
 
 '' It is Le which prevents the twofold matter and the five elements 
 
380 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 from losing their distinctness, although blended together (in chaos)," &c. 
 — Choo-tsze's Works, Le and K'e, sentence 9. 
 
 Hence the following distinction has been made in the application 
 of the titles Le (Fate) and T'ae-keih (The Great Extreme). 
 
 Leibnitz is of opinion that the Le of the Chinese is the chaotic 
 soul of the world, and their T'ae-keih the soul of the formed universe ; 
 in fine, the Deity of the Stoics. — Enfield's Hist, of Philos. vol. ii., 
 p. 577. 
 
 G. From the above statements we perceive that the Chinese, in 
 common with all other Pagan nations., hold :— 1. That there is one 
 Eternal, Ungenerated First Cause of all things. 2. That this First 
 Cause is " Fate," " Providence," " Nature," " The Infinite," " Heaven," 
 " Reason," " Incorporeal Reason;" an indivisible Unity, an Immove- 
 able Mover, Hidden, Incomprehensible, Omnipresent, the Root and 
 Author of all things, &c. 3. That he is the Supreme Soul of the 
 whole universe, which is by his presence constituted a living animal, 
 endowed with intellect and the power of motion. And 4. That matter 
 is eternally associated with him. This First Cause, the other Pagans 
 respectively designate Oeos, Deus, &c. &.C., and the Chinese designate 
 him Shin. 
 
 II. One of the most important doctrines of the Heathen world, and 
 one which is to be found in all Pagan systems, is that of the endless 
 succession of similar worlds. It is only by the light of this doctrine 
 that we can get any very clear insight into the theology of Pagan 
 nations, and its importance in this respect is thus stated by Mr. 
 Fabcr :— 
 
 " The doctrine of a succession of simihir worlds, more or less 
 systematically and explicitly maintained, may almost be considered as 
 the key to ancient mythology. As such therefore it merits a particular 
 examination. With it the theory of the metempsychosis is immediately 
 connected, forming indeed a constituent part of it," &c. — Orig. of Pag. 
 Idol. vol. i., p. 3. 
 
 1. This doctrine is inculcated in the Yih-king in the Po diagram, 
 which is stated to represent " falling down," or " the soft {i. e. gross 
 matter) overcoming the Hard;"i. e. the inherent soul of the world 
 (see III. 2), and thus all things return to primeval chaos. (See Yih- 
 king, vol. ii., ch. 1, p. 60.) In the Fuh diagram, however, "the 
 Hard" regains the ascendancy and " returns." Tiiis mind or soul of 
 the world then jiroceeds to form a new universe or body for himself, 
 and hence this diiigrani is said to "■manifest the mind of Heaven and 
 Earth," or the world. (See Ibid. vol. vii., !), 38). 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 381 
 
 To transcribe the statements of this doctrine by the various Chinese 
 philosophers would occupy too much space. I must therefore refer 
 the reader to the Sing-le-ta-tseuen for further information on the 
 subject, and shall merely quote here the opinion of Choo-foo-tsze, 
 which is as follows: — 
 
 " Being asked, ' From the opening and spreading out (of the world 
 from chaos) to the present time, is not 10,000 years; how was it 
 before that time?' He (Choo-tsye) replied, before that there was 
 another (world) similar to the present one. Being asked whether 
 Heaven and Earth are capable of being annihilated; he replied, no; 
 but it is my opinion that when men completely depart from correct 
 principles, then the whole will become chaos, and men and things will 
 cease to exist, and then there will be a new commencement.'" — 
 Choo-tsze's Works, T'heen and Te, sentence 5. 
 
 These are called the '•' Great Bevolutions " of the world, and are 
 compared to a year ; e. g. : — 
 
 " A day has a day's revolution, a month has a month's revolution, 
 a year has a year's revolution ; Heaven and Earth's commencements 
 and terminations are the great Revolutions," &c. 
 
 Shaou Pih-wan saj'^s, " Each complete Great Eevolution resembles 
 a year." — Sing-le-ta-tseuen, ch, viii., p, 13. 
 
 Each destruction of the world and return to chaos, is accomplished 
 by a general deluge, e. g.: — 
 
 " What Woo Fung says about a great termination (of all things) 
 in a general convulsion (of nature), the sea removing out of its place, 
 the hills sinking down, and the rivers overflowing; men and things 
 utterly destroyed, and the ancient traces all effaced refers to the 
 destruction of the world by Deluge. The shells of the sea snail and 
 pearl oyster have been seen on high hills and on stones ; these stones 
 formed (portions of) the soil of the former world," &c. — Choo-tsze's 
 T'heen and Te, sentence 6. 
 
 It is when all things have been thus destroyed and when the time 
 arrives for the formation of a new world that the inherent " mind ' 
 or soul "of Heaven and Earth " comes forth, as stated in the Yih-king 
 to accomplish the task; e. g. : — 
 
 " When the myriad of things have been generated and are 
 flourishing, Heaven and Earth do not exert their mind ; but, when all 
 things have decayed, and require to he again generated, then Heaven 
 and Earth exert their mind.' —Ibid, sentence 23. 
 
 Thus when one Body or World is destroyed by a Deluge, mind 
 arouses from a state of inactivity and comes forth to generate a new 
 one for himself. 
 
382 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 Although the Chinese philosophers differ as to the age of the 
 present world, yet they all agree as to the fact of a succession[of 
 worlds, as an examination of the Chinese work ahove mentioned will 
 abundantly show. The Deluge, being such a signal display of divine 
 vengeance, it is not to be wondered at that it shouhl have made a deep 
 and lasting impression upon tlie minds of succeeding generations; nor 
 can we feel much surprise that the Pag.in world should thus multiply 
 this one fearful judgment into an endless repetition of the same 
 phenomenon. The order of things, according to this doctrine, is as 
 follows : the world is first formed from Chaos, and the First Man is 
 born from this ovum mundi. This and some few succeeding generations 
 form the golden age of the world when universal righteousness and 
 happiness prevail. After this, however, the human race becomes 
 degenerate, and wickedness prevails; and when this state of things 
 reaches its climax, then the whole world is destroyed by a Deluge, 
 and returns to chaos. It is form alone, however, which is thus 
 destroyed, the matter (K'e) of which the universe and its several parts 
 are formed being eternal (I. 2). Hence, after a certain period has 
 elapsed, the world again springs forth from chaos, the first man 
 reappears, and a new world similar to the former one, and peopled by 
 the same inhabitants, is called into being. The minute similarity 
 of these worlds may be gathered from the following incident. Con- 
 versing one day with an intelligent Confucianist on this subject, he 
 remarked, '• "We are now seated at this table, conversing about this 
 passage (in the classics) ; and, after this world has returned to Chaos^ 
 when the corresponding period to the present, shall arrive in the 
 succeeding world, you and I shall again be seated at this table, con- 
 versing about this same passage." 
 
 It is evident that these endless appearances of the First Man 
 constitute him an eternal Being ; thus adorning a mere mortal with 
 one of the principal attributes of Deity. In fact, this Man, as we shall 
 see presently, is tlie Mind mentioned in the Yih-king, who is deified 
 and regarded as tlie Creator and Governor of the universe. 
 
 2. The eternal K'e which, by constantly revolving, ultimately 
 arranges itself, from its chaotic state into the formed universe, is, as 
 we have seen, constituted a rational Being or animal by the inherent 
 Divine " Reason " or supreme soul of the universe. (See i. 4, k.) 
 
 The Chinese philosophers represent this animated universe by a 
 
 Globe, or Circle, or Egg, thus^ » ,and it is suj)posed to be infinite 
 
 in extent, and eternal in duration, the form, only being subject to 
 change. This circle of the univvrso is designated by various names 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 383 
 
 and titles, most of which are derived from the inherent " Reason," 
 e. g. :— 
 
 a. The K'e is the " Great Extreme." 
 
 " The Great Extreme is one K'e, which divided," &c. — Choo-tsze's 
 Works, T'ae-keih, sentence 3. 
 
 This title (like most others) is given to this animated K'e, in 
 consequence of the melior natura inherent in it ; e. g. : — 
 
 " God (Shin) is Unity, he rides upon the K'e," &c. — Sing-le, &c., 
 ch. xi. 33. 
 
 " Because of its (^. e. the K'e's) one God (Shin) it is designated 
 the Great Extreme" &c. — Yih-king, vol. ii., 14, 25, Com. 
 
 Hence, to avoid confusion, the Chinese philosophers generally 
 confine the title " Great Extreme," when treating of Cosmogony, to 
 the K'e, and designate the inherent Reason or God " The Infinite," 
 expressing the inseparability of the two by the conjunction "and," 
 thus, " Infinite and Great Extreme." — Compare Choo-tsye's Works, 
 T'ae-keih, sentence 30, with Sing le, &c., vol. i., 12. 
 
 h. The K'e is " Heaven '" or " Shang-te." 
 
 The inherent Divine Reason takes no part in the generation of the 
 world, further than endowing the K'e or Great Extreme with the 
 necessary powers to generate it from his own substance. It is this 
 animated K'e therefore, which, depending upon the inherent Le, 
 generates all things ; e. g. : — 
 
 " Le existing then K'e exists, flows forth and pervades, generates 
 and nourishes," &c.— Choo-tsye's Works, Le and K'e, sentence 12. 
 
 " The Great Extreme is one Ke, which, by degrees, divided and 
 
 became two K'es it also divided and became five K'es {i. e. five 
 
 elements); it scattered and became all things" — Ibid. T'ae-keih, 
 sentence 3. 
 
 Hence, this Great Extreme is designated " Heaven " and 
 "Shang-te." 
 
 " Heaven is the accumulated ICe." — Ibid. T'heen and Te, sentence 39. 
 
 " When Heaven produces and completes the myriad of things, and 
 rules and governs them, the title given to that Being is Te," i. e. 
 Shang-te. — Legge's "Notions of the Chinese," &c. p. 12. 
 
 "On Choo He's principles T'ae-keih (The Great Extreme) and 
 Shang-te are the same." — Ibid. p. 63, note. 
 
 c. The K'e is the " Supreme One." 
 
 The Yih-king contains the Chinese Cosmogony in numbers, and 
 when the K'e or Shang-te is in his Chaotic or undivided state, the 
 rudiments of all things being blended into one undivided mass, he is 
 designated "One" (not person but unit); and, as all the other 
 
384 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 numbers, or portions of the universe are generated from his substance, 
 he is designated the " Supreme Unit," or " One ;" e. g. : — 
 
 " The Supreme One is the original K'e of Ciiaos, before the separa- 
 tion of Heaven and Earth. Before dividing, he is designated One." — 
 Le-ke, vol. xviii. ; Le Yun, iv., p. 8. 
 
 " The Great Extreme is the one Chaotic K'e, before Heaven and 
 Earth divided. This is the ' Great Commencement ' and the ' Supreme 
 One.' "—Chow Yih Lew, vol iv., 7, 39. 
 
 The manner in which the K'e or Supreme Unit, or Shang-te, 
 generates all things from his own substance, is thus described in the 
 classics : — 
 
 " Thus it is that ceremonies date their origin from the Supreme 
 One; he dividing, constituted Heaven and Earth; revolving, he 
 produced Light and Darkness; changing, he brought about the four 
 seasons ; and arranging, he appointed the Kwei-shins," i. e. Gods and 
 Demons. — Medhurst's " Theology of the Chinese," p. 82. 
 
 Thus we have in this origin of all things or animated monad, the 
 same distinction as that made by Pythagoras between Unity and One. 
 The former is the God /cot' efox'/J', and is indivisible (i. 4, e.); the 
 latter is the material divisible Demiurge (or K'e) who generates all 
 things from himself by his constant gyrations, and who is the Father 
 of Gods, Demons, and Men (IH. 6). 
 
 d. The K'e is Mind (Sin). 
 
 " If there were no K'e, then Le would not have anything to rest 
 upon."^ — Choo-tsze's Works, Le and K'e, sentence 5. 
 
 " If there were no Mind, then Le would not have anything to rest 
 upon." — Ibid. ch. xliv. 2. 
 
 Here the '• K'e " of the first sentence is de.signated Mind in the 
 second. Again, 
 
 " Mind is the Great Extreme." — Ibid. T'ae-keih, sentence 27. 
 
 e. The K'e is represented by an Egg; e. g. — 
 
 "The Great Extreme — the K'e— embracing three is one. The 
 San-Woo-leih-ke says that previous to (the separation of) Heaven and 
 Earth, Chaos was like on egg, turbid and watery, and about to burst." 
 — Wan-liaou-tseuen shoo, p. 1. 
 
 And as the K'e, or ovum mundi, is a rational animal, it bears the 
 same relation to the fully formed world which the Fojtus does to the 
 full-grown being : — 
 
 " Before the K'e divided, his form was afa'lus, like an ^g^,^' ^c. — 
 Imperial Thesaurus. 
 
 This " Heaven," or *• Shaiig-tc," when he is completed and beconios 
 the formed world, is still rcj)reseiited by a Circle or Egg ; e. g. : — 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 385 
 
 " Heaven's (i. e. the World or Shangte's) form is like a bird's egg ; 
 Earth rests in his midst, and Heaven upholds her outside, as the shell 
 does the yolk, the whole being round like a bullet; and hence the 
 phrase 'Circumference of Heaven' means that his form is a complete 
 circle. Both portions are Heaven {viz.) the concave half above the 
 Earthj and the half below the Earth," i. e. Tartarus. — Sing-le, &.C., 
 vol. xii. 22. 
 
 Thus the Sacred Mundane Circle is used to represent both the 
 Clmo'ic and the arranged world. The former is the les-ser circle, and 
 the latter is the greater. 
 
 3. The K'e or Universe is both Infinite and Eternal; e. g. : — 
 "The Great Extreme is a great thing; the four quarters, Zenith 
 
 and Nadir, are called Yu. (Duration) from ancient to modern times 
 is called Tsow. Nothing is so great as Yu; so great is it that the 
 four quarters go into infinity. Nothing is so great as Tsow; from the 
 most ancient times to the present, the caning and going of ages is 
 unceasing (t. e. the World is Infinite and Eternal). Every one should 
 be acquainted with this. Being asked who asserts this, he (Choo-tsze) 
 replied, th" ancients assert it," &c. — Choo-tsze's Works, T'ae-keih, 
 sentence 25. 
 
 This animated World or Shang-te is the greatest Piemen worshipped 
 in China. 
 
 " The Great Extreme is the most extreme point, beyond which we 
 cannot go; Most High, most Mysterious, most Pure, most Divine, 
 surjiassing everything," &c. — Ibid, sentence 30. 
 
 4. The eternal K'e or Shang-te is twofold, and like man, consists 
 of subtle and gross K'e, the former the Soul, and the latter the Body. 
 
 " At the commencement of Heaven and Earth, before Chaos was 
 divided, I consider that there were only two things, Water and Fire. 
 The sediment of the Water formed the Earth." — Ibid. T'heen and Te, 
 sentence 4. 
 
 This ethereal Fire is the Active Principle or Soul of the K'e, and 
 it is designated Yang, Light; the Water, which is not the element, 
 but a turbid, muddy mass, from which the Earth is eventually formed, 
 is the Passive Principle, and is designated Yin, Darkness. It is on 
 the former or Active Principle that the inherent Divine Reason confers 
 intellect and the power of motion; the latter merely forms the ethereal 
 Body or Vehicle of the Intellectual Fire. 
 
 "Intellect, perception, and motion, belong to tj.a Light, bodily 
 substance to the Darkness." — Ibid. ch. li., 19. 
 
 Hence it is from this Intellectual Fire that the whole K'e or 
 Universe is styled Mind or Shang-te; for, 
 
386 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 " Mind is the brilliant portion of the K'e." — Ibid. ch. xliv., 2. 
 Thus the Origin of all things, or animated Chaos, consists of three 
 hypostases; viz.: 1. The Eternal, Ungenerated "Nature" or God 
 (I. iv. c). 2. Mind or the Soul of the World— the subtle K'e; and 
 3. The grosser K'e, his ethereal Body : and the relation between these 
 three is stated as follows : — « 
 
 " Mind compared with Nature is more material; compared with 
 the K'e (t. e. the grosser K'e or Body) he is certainly more spiritual." 
 Ibid. p. 4. 
 
 Hence Chaos consists of a rational Soul, or Intellectual Mind 
 inherent in Matter. 
 
 a. It is the material Principle, or turbid muddy mass, which the 
 Chinese philosoj)liers chiefly mean bv the term " Chaos," e. g. : — 
 
 " That which forms the Chaos of Heaven and Earth is the Water.'''' 
 Sing-le, &c. xxvi., p. 19. 
 
 5 Shang-te or Mind — the Light — is the firstborn from Chaos. 
 " Before Chaos was divided, the twofold K'e was confused and 
 dark until it divided, and then the centre formed a wide and mod 
 hnlliant opening, and the 'Two E'' (Light and Darkness) were 
 established." — Choo tsze's Works, T'heen and Te, sentence 6. 
 
 Thus Mind, or Shang-te, in separating himself from Chaos or 
 Matter, generates Yin and Yang, or Darkness and Light, like 
 the Chaldean Bel, 6(/ cutting himself in two; hence he is addressed 
 thus, 
 
 " Te (Shang-te) when tliou hadst separated the Yin and Tayig," 
 &'C. — Legge's •' Notions," &c. p. 28. 
 
 Thus, also, although Shang-te is the Son of the Earth, or Matter, 
 being the first generated God, yet as he emerges from Chaos by his 
 own power, and then forms matter into the Earth, he is also said to 
 generate the Earth, and he is therefore her Father. Earth afterwards 
 becomes his 11 ife. In all this we have the foundation on which the 
 poets built the various amours of Jupiter. The Rainbow; is said by 
 the Chinese to be the offspring of an adulterous connection between 
 Heaven or Shang te and Earth. 
 
 6. Shang-te, or the Light, is also designated " Day, ' and the 
 Darkness in Matter is designated " Night." 
 
 "Day and Night revolve without ceasing, and are the two 
 principles. Light and Darkness," A;c. — Choo-tszc's Works, T'heen and 
 Te, sentence 20. 
 
 Hence, in Chinese cosmogony, darkness broods over chaos until 
 the birth of light, and thus night is prior to day. 
 
 7. Mind or !Shang-te — the Subtle Father — is the demiurgic framer 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 387 
 
 of the world ; and the Divine Reason, or God, uniting with him, 
 constitutes him the Ruler and Governor of the world ; e. g. : — 
 
 " K'e accumulated forms body, Le unites with it, and then it has 
 the power of intellect and perception ; just as when oil is poured upon 
 fire there is much flame. That which causes it to have perception is 
 the Le of (?'. e., inherent in) mind ; that which has perception is the 
 soul of the K'e, — i. e., mind himself, or the subtle K'e. — Choo-tsze's 
 Works, ch. xlix., 5. 
 
 " Being asked, with regard to the mind and Le of heaven and 
 earth, whether Le is Providence and mind the Ruling Power 
 (Shang-te), he (Choo-tsze) replied, mind cerfainly is the Ruling 
 Power, but that which constitutes him the Ruling Power is Le ; not 
 that, separated from mind, there is a distinct thing, viz. Le, or that, 
 separated from Le, there is a distinct thing, viz. mind (i. e. these are 
 different though not separate things, being eternally -united). Being 
 further asked whether mind is the same as the Ruler, he rejjlied, man 
 is the same as Heaven (i. e. the world), and mind is the same as the 
 Ruler (Shang-te)."— Ibid. T'heen and Te, sentence 20, 
 
 As it is the inherent reason which makes Shange-te or the Subtle 
 Ether to be a mind or rational soul, it follows that all Shang-te's acts 
 in generating and governing the world are in reality the acts of the 
 Supreme God or Le ; e. g. : — • 
 
 " Shang-te is Le acting as Lord.'' — Ibid, sentence 27. 
 
 a. From the above statements it appears that the title " Heaven," 
 given to the animated K'e, has a threefold application, — viz. 1, to the 
 God icar e^oxr]i', or Le ; 2, to the Ruling Power, or Shang-te — the 
 subtle K'e ; and 3, to the material Heaven or Universe — the gross K'e 
 ■ — which is Shang-te's body. These are the 07ili/ applications of this 
 term to be met with in the Chinese Classics ; e. g. : — 
 
 "Being asked the meaning of the word " Heaven" in the Classics, 
 he (Choo-tsze) replied, ' People must examine and distinguish for 
 themselves : in some places the azure fir maraent is meant, in sora© the 
 Ruling Power (Shang-te or mind), and in some Le is alluded to." — 
 Ibid, sentence 29. 
 
 6. Hence Shang-te, or mind complete, is the animated, material 
 Heaven, and there is no such thing to be found in the Chinese Classics 
 as a personal God distinct from matter ; e.g.:^ 
 
 " The Firmament is Heaven. It is this Heaven which revolves and 
 pervades (all things) without cessation. Now, to assert that Heaven 
 has aperson{y\w) up there, who records and judges sin and wickedness, is 
 certainly incorrect; to assert that there is nothijig whatever which governs 
 it, is also incorrect. People should consider this point." — Ibid. sen. 28. 
 
388 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 Thus a Lord and Governor of Heaven is admitted, while a personal 
 one is denied ; Shang-te or mind being the inherent soul of heaven or 
 the univert^e, who governs this his body, just as the soul in man 
 governs liis body ; e.g. : — 
 
 " The substance or body is called heaven, and the Lord and 
 Governor thereof is called Te" — i. e. Shang-te. 
 
 " Shang-te is the Lord and Governor of Heaven, as the human 
 MIND is the lord and governor of the body.'" — Medhurst's " Inquiry," 
 &c., p. 28. 
 
 " Shang-te is the Ruler of Heaven, j^sC as the mind is the ruler of 
 the body." — Legge's"*' Notions," &c., p. 52. 
 
 c. Although, however, the animated Heaven or World is Shang-te 
 complete (body and soul), yet as the soul constitutes the being himself, 
 it is the subtle invisible ether or '• mind" which is chiefly meant by 
 the designation " Heaven" or "Shang-te" (see above, § 4) ; e.g. : — 
 
 " Heaven and Te (Shang-te) indicate one Being. The stars and 
 constellations are not Heaven. Heaven must by no means be sought 
 for in what is visible. In what does he, who seeks for Heaven in 
 natural appearances, differ from a person who knows that a man has 
 a body, colour, and form, but does not recognise the honourable, 
 sovereign mind V — Ibid. p. 37. 
 
 6. It is from this animated Heaven or Shang-te that the whole 
 mundane circle or world which he contains within himself is desig- 
 nated " Heaven ," e. g. : — 
 
 " Earth has hollow places; Heaven surrounds her on all sides, and 
 has no hollow place. That which presses in and tills up all things is 
 Heaven. The four quarters of Earth incline downwards, and rest 
 upon Heaven ; Heaven embraces Earth, and his K'e penetrates every 
 place, so that the whole mass is Heaven.''' — Chung Yung Pun-e-hwae- 
 tseuen, ch. i , p. 26. 
 
 " Heaven and Earth are in reality but one thing ; Earth is also 
 7/mwn."— Works of the Two Chings, ka., vol. i., 30, 6. 
 
 Hence the World or Shang-te is indifferently styled " Heaven", or 
 "Heaven and Earth ;" and to worship this animated sacred circle is 
 to worshij) Shang-te ; e. g. : ~ 
 
 " Confucius said. . . .By sacrifices to Heaven and Kartli they served 
 Shang-te."" Chung Yung, sec. 19. 
 
 And this is the Being who is said in the Classics to "forgive" or 
 " not forgive" sins ; e. g. : — 
 
 " The phrase ' Heaven and Earth will not forgive,' means that all 
 things arc devoted to destruction," — /. e. are about to return to chaos. 
 — Clioo-tsze's Works, T'heon and Tc, sentence 5. 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 389 
 
 a. Thus Heaven and Earth, which are re.^^arded as male a.nd female 
 (III. 5), ultimately resolve themselves into one Being, who partakes of 
 both sexes, and is designated Heaven or Shang-te, and who contains 
 and generates all things within himself : 
 
 " The viyriad of things are included in Heaven and Earth; Heaven 
 and Earth are included in Heaven."— Chung Yung, Pun-e, &c,, 
 eh. i., 26. 
 
 7. In this K'e, therefore, we have a compound Being, viz. the 
 animated World, in whom Heaven or mind— the subtle K'e — is the 
 Soul, and the grosser K'e, or Matter, which ultimately becomes the 
 Earth, is the Body. Hence we meet with such statements as the 
 following ;, — 
 
 " Earth is Matter, Heaven is God (Shin)."— Chang-tsze, Ching- 
 mung, i., 17. 
 
 " Heaven is (?0fZ(Shin), Earth is Body ." ~Y\i-isze, eh. xlvii., 2. 
 
 This jiiND or Shang-te pervades every portion of his body, the 
 world, and is the principle of life in all creation. The soul in man is 
 a portion of this subtle Ether or Soul of the World, and his body is 
 derived from Earth or Shang-te'iS body; e.g. :— 
 
 " Every ether (i.e. soul) in existence, is it not from Heaven .? every 
 body in existence, is it not from Earth V — Siug-le, &c., ch. xxvi., 9. 
 
 Hence, in the formation of man. Heaven or Shang-te confers the 
 soul, and Earth the body : so that man is a microcosm, or lesser 
 Shang-te (see iv) . 
 
 8. This animated K'e, or Shang-te, triplicates his substance at the 
 commencement of each universe; e.g. : — 
 
 " That which is infinitely great is called ' supreme,' and that which 
 is undivided is called ' one' ; this is the principle of the Great 
 Extreme, which, including three, consists of one. — Medhurst's " Theo- 
 logy," &c., p. 82. 
 
 " The Great Extreme — the K'e— embracing three, is one." — Wan- 
 haou-tseuen-shoo, p. 1. 
 
 " The " £hree" here spoken of are " Heaven, Earth, and Man," 
 which are called the " San-tsae," or " the three Powers" of nature ; 
 and this triplication of the universe is effected by the power of the 
 inherent mind cr soul, hence it is said, — 
 
 " When Te (Shang-te), the Lord, had so decreed, he called into 
 existence heaven, eaiih, and man," &c., literally, " the Thee Powers." 
 — Legge's " Notions," &c., p. 29 (see Chinese). 
 
 9. This animated K'e, or Shang-te, is also divided in the Chinese 
 Classics into eight material forms ; and this Ogdoad, we learn from the 
 Yih-king, vol. xii., 17, 18, consists of Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, 
 
 VOL. XVI. 2 D 
 
390 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 Water, Fire, Mounta'ns, and Dew. These are the " eight Diagrams" 
 of the Yih-king. 
 
 Thus we have in the Chinese system also the Triad and the 
 Ogdoad, which are found in every other Pagan system. That these 
 arbitrary numbers are not borrowed from any other system is plain 
 from the fact of their differing in details from the others ; and thus we 
 have plain proof that the founders of the Chinese empire derived their 
 system from the one source common to all before the Dispersion, and 
 carried it with them from the Plain of Shiuar to China. 
 
 In the " eighi Diagrams" Heaven and Earth are regarded as the 
 great Father and Mother, and the remaining six are styled " the Six 
 Children," viz. three males and three females. The three males, or 
 sons, are triplications of Heaven, or Shang-te ; and the three females, 
 who aro united to them in marriage, are three daughters, triplications 
 of Earth, or the Great Mother (see Yih-king, vol. xii., 17, 181 These 
 are the chief gods of the Classics. Thus the three sons (or gods) 
 resolve themselves into Shang-te, the Great Father, and the three 
 females (or goddesses) into Earth, his wife ; and Shang-te and his 
 wife are blended into one compound hermaphroditic character, viz. 
 Heaven, or the hermaphroditic Shang-te (see above, § 6, a), e. ff. : — 
 
 " With regard to the whole (Heaven or Universe) then Earth ia 
 this one Heaven, and the six children are also this one Heaven." — 
 Yih-king, vol. xiii., 1.9, 13 Com. 
 
 Thus the Triplication and the Ogdoad are alike a delusion, both 
 resolving themselves into Shang-te himself (see vii. 3). 
 
 III. We now proceed to form the complete universe, or Shang-te, 
 from the animated K'e. We have already seen that this K'e is two- 
 fold, and that it consists of an ethereal Fire or Light, which is the 
 active and intellectual Principle, and grosser matter, which is de- 
 signated Darkness, and which forms the ethereal Bodj"-, or vehicle of 
 the Light or mind. 
 
 1. The Light, which is the Good Principle, is designated " God," 
 and the Darkness, or Evil and Material Principle, is designated 
 " Demon ;" e. g. : — 
 
 '■'Demon and God (Shin) are the K'e." — Choo tszes Works, 
 chap, li., 3. 
 
 " The Darkness is Demon, the Light is God " — Ibid. p. G. 
 
 " The Light is Good, the Darkness is Evil^ — Ibid. Yin and Yang, 
 sentence 23. 
 
 Both tlie.se Princijdcs arc by some of the Chinese philosophers 
 designated "God" (see Hwae Nan-tsze's Cosmogony, p 1, &.c ) ; but 
 
CHINESB THEOLOGY. 391 
 
 the greater part designate tlie Good Principle alone " God," and the 
 Evil Principle " Demon." 
 
 2. The Light, or Good Principle, is in the Yih-king designated 
 "Keen," because its nature is "Hard;" and the inferior Principle is 
 designated " Kwan/' because it is " Soft" and yielding These two 
 Principles generate the material world, of which they form the twofold 
 Soul or MIND ; e.g.: — 
 
 " When they assume form. Keen (the rational portion, or V'''x'/) 
 becomes Heaven, and Kwan (the sentient portion or anima) becomes 
 Earth. "^ — Ibid. chap, xxviii, 1. 
 
 Being thus endowed with Body, the twofold soul is now regarded 
 as immaterial when compared with it (see also II., 4) ; e.g. : — 
 
 " Heaven and Earth are Corporeal, Keen-Kwan is Incorporeal; 
 Heaven and Earth form the body of Keen-Kwan, Keen-Kwan is the 
 essence of Heaven and Earth."- -Ibid. chap, xlix., 26. 
 
 This Keen-Kwiin, or twofold soul of Heaven and Earth, as we have 
 already seen (II., 2. d.) is mind, or Shang-te ; e. g. : — 
 
 " Keen-Kwan is tlie Ruler (Shang-te) who governs all things." — 
 Yil-king, vol. X., 13, 21. 
 
 Thus Shang-te's body is the whole world, and his soul is the 
 twofold soul of the world. 
 
 a. Hence Shang-te (like Jupiter) is either Demon (Kwei) or God 
 (Shin) ; that is, he is the chief Demon-God, or twofold soul of the 
 world. Here we also perceive the vast difference which exists 
 between " Suin" and "Kwei shin" in the Chinese Classics; the 
 former being the Divine Reason, or soul of Shang-te, to whom the 
 latter owes all his powers as well as his existence, and " Kwei-Shin" 
 or " Demon-God" being Shang-te himself, or mind, the twofold soul 
 of the world. 
 
 3. This animated Heaven is designated "God," and the animated 
 Earth is designated "Demon ;" e.g. :^ 
 
 " Heaven belongs to the Yang, and is God (Shin) ; Earth belongs 
 to the Yin, and is Demon." — Sing-le, &c., chap, xxviii., 5, 
 
 And these are so designated from their souls ; e.g. :^ 
 
 " The soul of the Yang (f leaven) is God (Shin), and the sonl of 
 the Yin (Earth) is Demon."— Choo-tsze's Works, chap li., 6. 
 
 Of these two Beings, however, as we have already seen, the 
 animated Heaven or completed Keen, the rational soul of the world, 
 from whom the whole circle or universe is called Heaven, is the most 
 honourable ; e.g. : — 
 
 " Keen is the commencement of all things, hence he is designated 
 "Heaven'' and "Light,'' and "Father" and "Prince." — Yih king, 
 vol. ii., ch. 1, page I. Com 2 D 2 
 
392 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 a. Thus the completion of the rational soul of the world (Keen, or 
 Shaiifr-tc proper), i. e. the endowing him with a body, is the same 
 thing as the generation of Heaven ; and the completion of the Demon, 
 or auima mundi (Kwan), by the generation of a grosser body, is the 
 same as the generation of Earth ; all this being effected by the constant 
 revolutions of the K'e or Great Extreme, which thus divides into Yin 
 (aniniiited Earth) and Yang (animated Heaven) ; e.g. : — ■ 
 
 " He {i. e. Choo He) also said, the expressions, ' The producing of 
 Heaven, the producing of Earth, the completing the Demon, the 
 completing the Te (Shang-te),' mean the same as this, ' The Great 
 Extreme moving and resting produced the Yin and Yang.'' " — Legge's 
 " Notions," &c., p. 63, note. 
 
 4. The two principles of Light and Darkness, which form the 
 twofold MIND or soul of the material world, and constitute Heaven 
 and Earth living Beings, are thus described byChoo-tsze : — 
 
 " That which fills up the midst of (i. e. informs) Heaven and Earth, 
 so t\at these can make and transform (all things), is the twofold K'e, 
 Yin and Yang, which ciuse termination, commencement, increase, and 
 decline. The Yang (Light) is generated at the north, spreads oat to 
 the east, and fills up to the south. The Yin (Darkness) commences at 
 the south, fills up to the west, and terminates at the north. Hence 
 the Yang always dwells upon the left («. e. the east), and to generate, 
 nourish, cause to grow, and to cherish, is its province. Its species are 
 Hard, Bright, Jnst, and Righteous, and the path of every good man 
 belongs to it. The Yin always dwells upon the right (i. e. the West), 
 and to hurt, wound, injure, and destroy is its occupation. Its species 
 are Soft, Dark, Partial, and Selfish, and the path of every mean man 
 belongs to it," &c. — Choo-tsze's Works, Yin and Yang, sentence 25, 
 
 The Light, or Intellectual and Good Principle, is the rational 
 portion of jiind, or Y'^'X'/ xoa^tov, and is the most subtle ether 
 inherent in the material heaven. The Darkness, or Material and Evil 
 Principle is the anivia mundi inherent in matter or the earth, on which 
 it bestows life. 
 
 The usual way of depicting this twofold Principle of all things on 
 
 .S" walls and houses in China is thus : — 
 
 The Chinese do not say, "north, south, 
 cast, west," as we do, but generally, "south, 
 north, west, east." In this diagram the spec- 
 tator is supposed to stand inside the sphere, 
 with his face to the north and his back to 
 '^ the south ; then the east, the Empire of Light, 
 
 will be on the left hand, and the west, the 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 393 
 
 Empire of Darkness, on the right. The Chinese do not mark the 
 cardinal points in these diagrams; they are merely added here for the 
 convenience of the reader. 
 
 This doctrine of an animated universe is held by all classes in 
 China. The phrase " Weh-Teen-Weh-Te " (Living Heaven and 
 Earth), is constantly heard in Shanghae from men, women, and 
 children ; and the constant argument brought in favour of this idea is, 
 " If Heaven were not alive how could he revolve? If Earth were not 
 alive how could she generate things?" 
 
 As I was crossing a ferry one day, accompanied by a large number 
 of passengers, I asked my usual question on such occasions, viz. : — ■ 
 "Can any one present read?" "Why?" said one. "Because," said 
 another, " he wishes to give us books." " To teach us to worship 
 Heaven and Earth " (i. e. Shang-te) said a third. " My books," I 
 replied, " do not teach men to worship Heaven and Earth." " But 
 don't you know that Heaven and Earth are alive?" asked another, 
 repeating several times the phrase " VVeh-T'een, Weh-Te,' as proof of 
 the accuracy of his statement. I answered, that my doctrine w; s 
 '"'Inanimate Heaven and Earth," and that I worshipped the Creator 
 of both. Upon this several shouted out, " Weh -T'een-Weh-Te ! 
 Wch-T'een-Weh-Te!" calling to one's mind the idolatrous cry, " Great 
 is Diana of the Ephesians !" I begged of my fellow-passengers to 
 believe in the only God, Jehovah, and not in the animated Heaven. 
 " If," I added, " Heaven be alive, how comes it to pass that he allows 
 astronomers to calculate his movements?" " Tush !" exclaimed one, 
 pointing to the sky, "just look at him how great he is! Nothing can 
 be greater than Heaven and Earth!" 
 
 As the Soul which animates the Earth is designated " Demon," all 
 other Demons are supposed to be generated by her, and are compre- 
 hended in her substance. Hence the Chinese architect, who undertook 
 to build my house at Shang-ha«, refused to make the piles on which it 
 stands six feet in length, lest in driving such long stakes he might 
 wound the heads of some of the Demons, and so bring down calamities 
 upon himself ! 
 
 5. This complete animated World or Heaven and Earth, is regarded 
 as being both Male and Female; and the animated Heaven or Mind 
 now becomes the Male or Husband, who is styled in the classics 
 "Imperial Heaven," while the animated Earth is regarded as the 
 Female, and is styled " Empress Earth." These " two K'e " are the 
 Chinese Great Father and Mother of all things; e. g. : — 
 
 "Keen is Heaven, and hence he is styled '■ Father ;'' Kwan is 
 
894 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 Earth, and hence she is styled '■ Mother,^" &.c. — Yih-king, ch. xvii., 
 p. 18. 
 
 " Heaven and Earth are the Father and Motlter of all tlungs." — - 
 Ibid, vol, iv., ch. iv., p. 6. 
 
 " If Heaven and Earth did not mingle together, the myriad of 
 things could not exist." 
 
 " Heaven and Earth generate all things, and throughout all agea 
 cannot be separated from the myriad of things." — Choo-tsze's Works, 
 T'heen and Te, sentence 7. 
 
 " The officers slowly made obeisance three times and replied, you 
 stand uj)97i Empress Earth, and you wear as a cap (overhead) Imperial 
 Heaven. Imperial Heaven and Empress Earth certainly hear what 
 you say," &c. — Officers of the Tsaou and Tsin Countries. See Chuu 
 Tsew of Confucius. 
 
 In the Sho-king, book v., section 3, " Where one sage is said to 
 influence Imperial Heaven, and another to influence Shang-te, a com- 
 mentator says that 'Imperial Heaven' and 'Shang-te,' both refer to 
 Heaven, and the difl"erence is only in the variation of the expression," 
 Sec. — Medhurst's " Inquiry," &c., p. 23. 
 
 " Empress Earth .... is associated in the Chinese mind with 
 Imperial Heaven, here called High Heaven, in the management of 
 human afi"airs," &c — Medhurst's " Theology," etc , p. 49. 
 
 Thus the whole World, or " Heaven,'' or Shang-te complete, is a 
 great Hermaphroditic Deity, who is at once the Father and the Mother 
 of all things, and who generates all things within himself, from his own 
 "capacious womb" — the Earth. Thus when the world or Shang-te is 
 regarded as " one K'e," he forms a complete Being or animal, in which 
 Mind or Heaven is the Soul, and Matter or Earth is the Body (II. 7). 
 Regarded as " two K'e," Mind or " Imperial Heaven " is the Male or 
 Husband, and Matter or " Empress Earth" is the Female or Wife; 
 and these two Beings, united in one universe, form the great Her- 
 maphroditic Heaven or Shang-te, who generates all things from and 
 within himself. 
 
 " If any one doubts whether Empress Earth is included, I siiould 
 then say that Empress Earth was evidently included in the designation 
 Shang-te." — Shoo-king, Canon of Shun. Com. 
 
 6. The First Man, the third great Power of nature, is the sou of 
 these two Beings, viz , Heaven or Shang-te, and Iiis wife Empress 
 Earth ; e. g. : — 
 
 " (Choo-tsze) being asked how the First Man was generated, 
 replied that he was formed from the K'e; the liner particles of the 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 395 
 
 Yia (animated Earth) and Yang (animated Heaven) and the five 
 elements combined and completed his form," &c.— Choo-tsze's Works, 
 T'heen and Te, sentence 5. 
 
 " Chaos is a bubbling, turbid water, which inclosed and mingled 
 with the dual powers {i. e. Heaven and Earth) like a chick in ovo, but 
 when their offspring Pwanku appeared, their distinctiveness and 
 operations were apparent."— Williams' " Middle Kingdom, vol. ii., 
 p. 196. 
 
 " The K'e of Heaven and Earth revolves without ceasing, constantly 
 generating both men and things; it's midst contains coarse and fine 
 (K'e) so that men are depraved and ujrright."' — Choo-tsze's Works, 
 T'heen and Te, sentence 26. 
 
 Thus the triplication of the K'e or Great Extreme is Shang-te or 
 Heaven, the Father; Empress Earth, his wife; and the First Man, 
 their son; and these "three" Minds, or Worlds, are in reality but 
 "one" universe or Great Extreme, or Shang-te; and hence Shang-te 
 is always worshipped in the state religion under his triplication 
 " Heaven, Earth and Man." 
 
 7. This Great Father and Mother are astronomically the Sun and • 
 Moon, by whom the Stars are generated; e. g. :— 
 
 The Yin and Yang " placed in opposition are Heaven and Earth, 
 Sun and Moon,'" &c. — Yih-king, vol. x., 13, 21, Com. 
 
 " By the seminal influence of the Sun and Moon, the Stars were 
 produced." — Chinese Repos. vol. iii., p. 55. 
 
 " The Sun and Moon are regarded as the foci of the dual poivers, 
 the male and female principles, and the former as the lord of life, like 
 a great prince nourishes and bestows his favours, while the moon his 
 queen is matched to him." — Williams's "Middle Kingd." vol ii., 
 p. 151. 
 
 Hence Shang-te or the Sun is thus addressed in the Book of Odes. 
 
 " How majestic is Shang-te, looking down on this lower world, 
 
 how gloriously does he shine!" »|{;c.— Medhurst's " Inquiry," &c., p. 39. 
 
 Hence also the Sun is supposed to be animated by the Soul of 
 
 " Heaven" or Shang-te, which was translated to it; e. g.: — 
 
 " The Shin {9eo<s-\lyvxr]) of Heaven (the Universe) resides in the 
 Sun;' &c.— Siug-le, &c., 12, 30. 
 
 The Yin and Yang are always depicted thus on guard-houses in 
 
 China iSp., which represents the great Father Shang-te or the Sun 
 
 escaping in the Lunar boat from the flood.— See Faber's Orig. of Idol. 
 8. Shang-te or Heaven, and his wife Earth, being the patrons of 
 generation, are invoked at marriages ; e. g. : — 
 
396 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 " The first copy (of the marriage contract) we shall take and burn 
 before Heaven and Earth" &c. 
 
 "(The contract) being solemnly sworn to, they knelt in humble 
 worship before Heaven and Earth." — Wang Keaou Lwan, <tc. 
 
 These two Beings are represented in Choo-tsze's T'heen and Te, 
 sentence 37, by two symbols, which cannot be mistaken; the passage 
 is unfit for translation. 
 
 9. The animated " Heaven" or Shang-te surrounds the Earth or 
 World and preserves it in existence by his constant gyrations; e.g.: — 
 
 "Heaven revolving without cessation, Day and Night revolve, 
 and Earth is supported in the centre. If Heaven should cease for an 
 instant, Earth must then sink down; but Heaven revolves quickly, and 
 therefore much sediment is condensed in his midst. Earth is the 
 sediment of the K'e, therefore we say, the subtle and clear (K'e) 
 became Heaven, the heavy and gross (K'e) became Earth." — Choo-tsze's 
 Works, T'heen and Te, sentence 2. 
 
 10. Mind proper, or the ~^vx>] Koa/nov, the subtle ethereal Fire, is 
 placed at the outer circle of this "Heaven" or complete Shangte, 
 who consists of nine spheres; e. g. : — 
 
 " Persons constantly assert that Heaven has nine stories, and divide 
 these into signs ; this is incorrect, he has merely nine spheres, but the 
 lower portion of the K'e is comparatively gross and dark, above at the 
 highest point, it is most clear and bright." — Choo-tzse's Works, T'heen 
 and Te, sentence 3. 
 
 Hence this animated " Heaven" or Shang-te, the Husband of the 
 world, is thus spoken of in the classics : — 
 
 " Heaven is widely extended over all, without any private feeling, 
 forgetting the difference between self and others (in making any 
 decision) his justice and equity pervade to the utmost distance, in 
 everything judging and discriminating accurately, therefore Heaven 
 is called Te," i. e. Shang-te.— Medhurst's " Inquiry," &c., p. 6. 
 
 " In the collection of Imperial Odes, 9th section, 6th page, the 
 writer says, ' We reverence Shang-te, because he widelg overspreads 
 all regions.'"— Ibid. p. 93. 
 
 " The vast and sublime Shang-te is the governor among the 
 nations." — Ibid. 
 
 Washing to ascertain accurately the views of the mass of the 
 people at Shang-hae on this point, I set out, on one occasion in 
 particular, to visit the principal temples in the city and to make 
 certain inquiries of all those whom I might happen to meet. To 
 relate all the incidents of this day is unnecessary; I shall merely 
 mention one and request the reader ab uno discere omnes. 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 39? 
 
 On going into the chief temple, I entered into conversation with a 
 man who was standing near the idol, smoking his pipe. " Whom do 
 you worship?" I asked. "I worship Heaven just as you foreigners 
 do," he replied. "Who is the Heaven you worship?" "Why, 
 Shang-te, of course," said he. "Can you see Shang-te or not?" I 
 inquired. " Why," replied he, looking at me with surprise at my 
 ignorance, and leading me to the door while he pointed up to the sky, 
 " there he is 1 " " What," said I, do you mean that blue sky up 
 there?" "Of course," said he, "that is Shang-te, the same as your 
 Jesus!'' 
 
 I have never yet asked the above questions without receiving 
 precisely the same answers, for all classes of Confucianists in China 
 consider Shang-te to be the animated material Heaven. 
 
 11. This animated " Heaven," or " Shang-te," is the only Being 
 who has ever received supreme worship in China, so far as we can 
 learn; for the account given of the earliest act of worship, is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Shun then offered a sacrifice of the same class (with the border 
 sacrifice) to Shang-te," &c. On which passage the commentator 
 remarks, " the border sacrifice was the usual offering presented to 
 the expansive heavens^' &.c. — Medhurst's Shoo-king, p. 17, and note. 
 
 The reason of this title "Expansive" being given to Shang-te or 
 the " heavens," is as follows: — 
 
 " Because of the immensity of his ether, he is designated ' Expansive 
 Heaven;' because his throne is on high (i. e. spread over the earth) 
 he is designated ' Shang-te.'"— Chow Le, section 18, 2. 
 
 Hence the Confucianists consider it absurd to make images of 
 Shang-te as the other polytheists do ; e. g. : — 
 
 "In the works of Choo-foo-tsze, section 12, p. 12, one asked in 
 regard to the phrase ' offending against Heaven,' whether Heaven is 
 that passage meant the azure canopy of heaven, or the principle of 
 order? to which Choo replied, 'the substance or body,'" i. e. the 
 material Heaven " is called heaven, and the Lord and Governor 
 thereof," i.e. the subtle Ether or animating soul; "is called Te 
 (Shang-te), but you must not confound this being with him whom the 
 Taouists call the thrice pure great Te, whom they represent as 
 enrobed in splendour and enthroned in state." — Medhurst's " Inquiry," 
 &c., p. 27. 
 
 12. As the whole complete universe is styled "Heaven and 
 Earth," or "Heaven," or "Shang-te," the intellectual Fire, or Y^i'xv 
 KOff^ioi', which animates it, is indifferently styled "the Mind of 
 
398 
 
 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 Heaven and Earth," ox "the Mind of Heaven," or "the Mind of 
 Shang-te," in the Chinese classics; e. a. : — 
 
 " In the same section, the writer talks of submitting himself to the 
 inspection of Shang-te s mind, ujjon which Choo-foo-tsze has the fol- 
 lowing — 'virtue and vice are all known to Heaven (see II., 7, 5): 
 it is as if a catalogue of all our faults were made out and reckoned 
 up ; when we do anything good it is present to the mind of Te 
 (Shang-te) and when I do anything bad it is also present to the mind 
 of Te.' The phrase, "' the mind of Shang-te' is explained by the 
 commentator to mean ' the mind of Heaven,'" — Ibid. p. 23, 
 
 " Being asked whether the Mind of Heaven and Earth has life or 
 is motionless, eflecting nothing; he (Choo-tsze) replied, we must not 
 assert that the ]\Iind of Heaven and Earth has not life, but, it cannot 
 think and j)Ian like man,'^ &c. — Choo-tsze's Works, T'heen and Te, 
 sentence 19. 
 
 It is this Mind of soul of the world, who appoints Emperors ; 
 
 " Prefixed to the Yew-heo is a historical poem, in which the 
 writer, speaking of the present dynasty, says, ' The mind of Te 
 (Shang-te) surveyed the glories of the Tartar dynasty, and raised 
 T'heen-niing to the throne, who after reigning eleven yearSj reverted 
 to the palace of Te ' " — Medhurst's Inquiry, &c,^. p. 34. 
 
 13. From the preceding statements, the complete universe, or 
 Shang-te, regarded as one K'e, or complete Being, Soul, and Body, may 
 bo thus described by a diagram : — 
 
 MIND 
 
 or 
 
 Heaven 
 
 or 
 
 Heaven and Earth 
 
 or 
 
 Sliang-te 
 
 or 
 
 MAN (see Part IV,) 
 
 The Supreme Soul of the whole universe, or Shang-te, is the Divine 
 " Reason," or God, Km' ('fo\-»})', the Infinite Imiuatorial Space in which 
 the universe, which is his visil)lo representation, revolves. As in the 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY, 399 
 
 case of man, he unites chiefly with the Mind of Shang-te or the 
 World, and makes it to be a rational Sould. From this twofold Soul 
 (i^^'XV ^^'^ anima), the world is designated Mind, or Shang-te, and 
 this twofold subtle Ether, by whose expansions and contractions all 
 creation is generated or dies, is designated (as in man) " Kwei-shin," 
 or " Demon-god." The '^i>X'] KOff/nov, or rational portion of this 
 twofold Soul, being the most pure Ether, is considered to be " hard" 
 as to its nature, and is therefore designated " Keen." This Keen is 
 the Demiurge or Great "Father" himself, who being constituted an 
 intelligent Being or Soul by the First God or " Reason," which unites 
 with him, generates or arranges the various portions of the world by 
 his delegated power. From the Supreme Soul or God, kut t^oyj^v 
 who pervades the whole universe without division of substance, the 
 animated World, or Shang-te, is designated " Reason," " Heaven," 
 &c. &.C. Hence the philosopher Ching-tsze thus describes him : — 
 
 " If we divide him (Heaven or Shang-teJ, and describe him, then 
 his Body is called Heaven (the World); the ruling power (Y^i'X7 or 
 rational Soul) is called Te (Shang-te) ; the active energy {twofold 
 Soul) is designated Kwei-shin (Demon-god) ; and that which renders 
 all things mysterious is designated God (Shin). With regard to 
 nature, he (Shang-te, or the rational Soul) is designated K'een. 
 K'een is the commencement of all things, and hence he is designated 
 Heaven, Light, Father, and Prince." — Yih-king, vol. ii., p. 12, Com. 
 
 By drawing the line A. B., we have Shang-te, or the world 
 regarded as " two K'e," i. e., " Imperial Heaven," the Husband, and 
 Empress Earth, his wife; and these two Beings thus joined in one, 
 form the great Hermaphroditic Shang-te, who generates all things 
 from and within his own substance. 
 
 IV. Thus this complete universe, or " Heaven and Earth," or 
 " Heaven," or " Shang-te," or by whatever other designation he 
 may be called, although adorned with all the attributes of the true 
 God, is yet merely a Man; for he has a Body, viz., Heaven and 
 Earth, the former his head, the latter his feet ; his soul is twofold, 
 partly rational and partly sentient, the former being the most subtlQ 
 and pure Ether or Fire; and united with his rational Soul, is the 
 God, KaT efox)}", the Divine '' Reason," (Le Fate), which is hia 
 '-.' virtvous nature," conferring upon him all the powers which he 
 possesses, and to whom he owes his existence. 
 
 1. The World, or Shang-te. whether he be designated " Heaven," 
 or " Heaven and Earth," or " Mind," is expressly declared to be a 
 Man ; e.g.: — 
 
400 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 " Heaven is a mould — a Great Man; Man is a small Heaven 
 (Microcosm)." 
 
 " Heaven and Earth are a mould — a Great Man ; Man is a small 
 Heaven and Earth." — Yu-luy, ii., 26. 
 
 " Man is the Mind of Heaven and Earth." — Le Ke, iv., 2G (Le 
 Yun). 
 
 By the term *' Man" here, Sages and Emperors are chiefly meant; 
 e.g.:— 
 
 " The Sage is the same as Heaven (Shang-te)." — Choo-tsze's Works, 
 ch. xvii., 30. 
 
 " The Sage is Heaven (Shang-te), and Heaven (Shang-te) is the 
 Sage." — Ibid. ch. xxviii., 9. 
 
 " He (the virtuous Prince) stands as 07ie with Heaven and Earth 
 (Shang-te), and rebels not." — Chung Yung, sec. 29. 
 
 " One of the titles of the Emperor is Heaven, or the Divinity^ — 
 Medhursts Inquiry, &c., p. 70. 
 
 Hence the Emperor is worshipped with the same degree of honour 
 as Heaven, or Shang-te. — See Chinese Repos. vol. ii., p. 375. 
 
 Hence also the Emperor's wife is the same as " Empress Earth ;" 
 
 e.g.:— 
 
 " Eight days after this (16th June, 1833), on the 7th of the 5th 
 moon, another paper appeared in the Gazette, praising her majesty, 
 whose name was Tung-kea, for her great virtues ever since she became 
 consort to Heaven (i. e. the Emperor), and during the thirteen years 
 that she had held the relative situation of Earth to Impemd Heavm," 
 i. e., Wife to the Emperor. — Medhurst's Inquiry, p. 212. 
 
 2. The animated World, or Shang-te, and Man, are precisely the 
 same, being formed from the same materials, viz. Le and K'e ; e. g. : — 
 
 " That which makes man to be man is, that his Le is the Le of 
 Heaven and Earth, and his K'e is the K'e of Heaven and Earth," See. — 
 Choo-tsze's Works, sentence '23. 
 
 And, as the K'e in the World, or Shang-te, is twofold, viz. i\IiND 
 and Matter, so also in Man : 
 
 a. The gross K'e, or body in Man, is the same as the gross K'e, or 
 body of Shang-te, viz. Heaven and Earth ; e. </. : — 
 
 " Heaven and Earth are one K'e, just as all the bones of a Man 
 constitute one Body," t'tc— Chung Yung, ch. iii., 51. 
 
 " Man's head is round like Heaven, Insfeet arc square like Earth," 
 &c. — Choo-tsze's Works, ch. xlii. 31. 
 
 •' The Sun and Moon in Heaven (Shang-te) correspond to the eyes 
 in Man," <kc. — !Sing-le, Jkc. xxvii., 1. 
 
 " The Shin of Heaven (V^'X'/ ''"'"/'oi') resides in the Sun (Shang- 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY, 
 
 ;40l 
 
 te's eye) as the Shin {^vx>)) of a Man is manifested in his eye." — 
 ibid, xii., 30. 
 
 " Man receives the gross and subtle K'e, and resembles Heaven 
 
 and Earth in form His head is round like Heaven, his feet are 
 
 square like Earth, his eyes are like the Sun and Moon, his voice like 
 thunder," &c. — Ibid, xxvi., 29. 
 
 b. Also, the subtle K'e or Mind in Man, is the same as the subtle 
 K'e or Mind of Heaven and Earth, i. e., Shang-te proper. 
 
 " The Mi.\D of Heaven and Earth pervades all things ; Man 
 obtains it, and then it becomes the Mind of Man; things obtain it, 
 and then it becomes the Mind of things ; Grass, Trees, Birds and 
 Beasts obtain it, and then it becomes the Mind of Grass, Trees, Birds 
 and Beasts; all is but the 07ie Mind of Heaven and Earth." — Choo- 
 tsze's Works, ch. xlix., 23. 
 
 Hence the Minds or Souls of Men, Birds, Beasts, Trees, &c,, are 
 all alike Shang-te, being portions of this one Mind who pervades, 
 animates, and governs every portion of his Body the World, as the 
 SjuI does the body in Man; e.g.: — 
 
 " Heaven and Earth are one K'e, just as the various bones of a 
 Man constitute one body. Shang-te is the Ruler of Heaven {i. e., his 
 Body, the World), Just as the Soul is the Rider of the body. How can 
 there be two (Rulers) 1" — Legge's Notions, &c. p. 52. 
 
 As there can be but one rational Soul (or Ruler) in Man, so there 
 is but one rational Soul (or Ruler) in the animated World, and all 
 other Souls (or Gods) being but decerptcd portions from this V^'X'/ 
 Koa/iiov, are all alike Shang-te ; e. g.: — 
 
 " If we speak of all the Gods (Shin) of Heaven (the World) col- 
 lectively, we designate them Shang-te." — Le-Ke, book v., 34, Com. 
 
 3. As Mind, or Shang-te, is a twofold Soul in " Heaven and 
 Earth,' so is he also in Man, and in both, this twofold soul is desig- 
 nated " Kwei-Shin," or " Demon-god." 
 
 " Heaven and Earth are one thing with my bodi\; that which is 
 designated Demon-god (in the World) is my own K'e." — Choo-tsze's 
 Works, ch. li., 22. 
 
 " That which Heaven and Earth possess in common with Men is 
 called Kwei-shin," i. e., Demon-god, or ^/'I'X'/ and anima. — Medhurst': 
 Theology, &c. p. 167. 
 
 4. On the ground that Man and Shang-te are one and the same, 
 the former is exhorted to virtue ; e. g. : — 
 
 "Man is one thing with Heaven and Earth (complete Shangte) 
 why then should he demean himself ? " — AVorks of the Two Chings, 
 &c. vol. i., 52. 
 
46ii'- •'■'■* ' ' CHINESE THEOLOGY. ' 
 
 Heaven, Earth, and tbo myriad of things are one substance with 
 my bod I/; when my Mind is properly adjusted, the Mind of Heaven 
 and Earth (Shang-te) is properly adjusted," »!;:c— Chung Yung, i., 25, 
 Com. 
 
 '• The shin (rational soul) of Man, is the shin (rational soul) of 
 Heaven and Earth (Shang-te) ; so that when Man demeans himself, he 
 demeans Heaven and Earth (Shang-te). Can he then venture to do 
 so?" — Sing-le, &c., ch. xii., 4. 
 
 Hence we see the reason why the rational soul in Man is desig- 
 nated God (Shin), namely, because it is a decerpted portion of the 
 subtle Ether, or that God (Shin— Shang-te) who is the Soul of the 
 World. 
 
 V, Shang-te, or the animated World, being thus shown to be but 
 a mortal, although adorned in the attributes of Jehovah, the next 
 subject of inquiry is, Who is this Man? To this question two answers 
 may be given ; e. g.: — 
 
 1. He is Pwan-koo. 
 
 The Great Extreme, or Chaos, we have seen, is a compound sub- 
 stance, consisting of Mind and Matter, the former the Soul, and the 
 latter the Body: hence this origin of all things is evidently a Man. 
 Now the Confucian law regarding dissolution is, that the soul and 
 body return to their respective sources whence they were originally 
 derived ; e. (j.: — 
 
 " Every ether (soul) in existence, is it not from Heaven ? every 
 body in existence, is it not from Earth V — Sing-le, &c. xxvi., 9. 
 
 Hence when dissolution takes place, 
 
 " The body and anima descend (to Earth), and the Intellect and 
 ether {i. e., the rational soul in an ethereal vehicle) ascend (to 
 Heaven)."— Le Yun, i., 20. 
 
 According to this law, therefore, when Chaos or the eternal First 
 Man, separates into his component parts, the Soul or Mind ascends, 
 and in this case becomes Heaven or Shang-te, while the Body or Matter 
 descends and becomes Earth, and thus, as Socrates says, "Life springs 
 from Death.'' These two, now uniting in one universe, form the First 
 Man, in human form, or lesser Shang-te, who is Pwan-koo, or Adam. 
 Hence we are tcjld that, 
 
 "The First Man was Pwan-koo. At the approach of death his 
 body was transformed ; his breath was changed into winds and clouds, 
 his voice into thunder, his left eye into the sun, and his right into the 
 moon, his limbs becvime the four regions, his blood and scrum rivers, 
 his sinews and arteries the earth's surface, his flesh fields, his beard tho 
 
■CHIKESE THEOLOGY. 40S 
 
 stars, his skin and hair herbs and trees, his feet and bones metals 
 and rocks, his fine marrow pearls and precious stones, his dropping 
 sweat rain," &c. — Chinese Repos. vol. iii., 55. 
 
 Thus we have here a man, from first to last, who is, first, Chaos, 
 or the Fa^tus ; secondly, the animated Heaven and Earth or World, 
 and who, lastly, appears in human form ; and hence the Great Extreme, 
 or Animated Chaos, is said to have triplicated himself, or divided into 
 three minds or Shang-tes. (See above, 11. 8, and III. 6.) • 
 
 Hence, when we turti to Chinese history, we find that Pwan-Koo, 
 the First Man, or Animated Chaos, was succeeded by three sovereigns, 
 styled Heaven Emperor, Earth Emperor, and Man Emperor; and 
 these three Beings, the commentator states, are in reality " Heaven, 
 Earth, and Man," the Three Powers of Nature, and the triplication 
 of the "Great Extreme," or "Supreme Unit," or "Shang-te." — See 
 " Mirror of History," vol. i. 
 
 Now these Beings being all formed by the union of the Male and 
 Female Principles, are Hermaphrodites, and for the same reason all 
 males and females are so regarded in China ; e. g. : — 
 
 " Keen (Heaven or Shang-te) completes the male, Kwan (Empress 
 Earth) the Female. Although the male belongs to the Yang, yet we 
 cannot affirm that he is not Yin (i. e., female) ; and, although the 
 female belongs to the Yin, yet we cannot affirm that she is not Yang 
 {i. e., male).— Choo-tsze's Works, Yin and Yang, sentence 17. 
 
 Thus we have in this family of the First Man (Pwan-Koo and his 
 three hermaphroditic successors) in reality eight persons— viz., Pwan- 
 Koo, or Shang-te, or mind, the Great Father, his wife, three sons, and 
 their three wives ; and these eight individuals issue forth from chaos 
 or the ovum mundi, and correspond to the prominent characters in the 
 family of Adam." 
 
 2. Shang-te is also Fuh-he. 
 
 It is plain, from what has been already stated, that the First Man 
 in his human form is in reality but a re-ap2')earance of a former First 
 Man, viz., animated Chaos ; and between these two individuals inter- 
 venes a universal Deluge, from which the second First Man (if I may 
 so designate him) escapes. Now this First Man, who escapes the 
 Deluge and reappears at the commencement of each new world, is 
 Fuh-he ; e. g. : — 
 
 " Fuh-he is the First (who appears) at each opening and spreading 
 out (of the universe)." — Sing-le, &c. xxvi., 19. 
 
 This Fuh-he, who is but a re-appearance of Pwandvoo or Adam, 
 escapes from the Deluge with S'ven companions ; and hence, in thie 
 
46'i- CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 material system, the universe is not only divided into three, but also 
 into eight; e. g. : — 
 
 •'Although the Great Extreme of the Yih-king has not been de- 
 lineated, yet Keen (Imperial Shang-te or mind) is the Great Extreme. 
 Speaking of both portions (of the sacred circle or universe), then Kwaa 
 (Empress Earth) may be paired with him, and the d.r children are also 
 included (i. e., in the circle). With regard to the whole (circle or 
 universe), then Earth is this one Heaven (universe or Shang-te) and 
 the six children are also this one Heaven," <£;c. — Yih-king, vol. xiii., 
 19, 13 Com.) 
 
 Here we have also a family of eight i)ersons, who issue from the 
 sacred circle, viz., Shang-te or Fuh-he, his wife, and their six children. 
 These "six children," we'find, on reference to the Yih-king, vol. xii., 
 chap, xvii., p. 18., are three sons and three daughters ; and these brothers 
 uniting in marriage with their three sisters complete the universe. 
 
 In this Fuh-he and his family, then, we have the prominent cha- 
 racters in Noah's family, who escaped from a general Peluge, which 
 destroyed the rest of the human race. 
 
 It is evident that this family corresponds to Pwan-koo's, the males 
 and females being here separated; for we are told that previous to this 
 time there was no distinction of sex, Fuh-he having been the first who 
 instituted marriage. — See Chinese " Mirror of History," vol. i., p. 7. 
 
 By the constant succession of similar worlds, the two periods of 
 the world's history, viz., (Jhaos (or Creation) and the Deluge, are 
 blended together, and consequently the families of Pwan-koo (or 
 Adam) and Fuh-he (or Noah), are also blended together, the latter 
 being merely a re-appearance of the former. This confusion is faci- 
 litated by the fact, evidently known to the ancestors of the Chinese, 
 that the Adamic and Noetic families both consisted of eight persons ; 
 and hence in this material system they divided the universe or chief 
 god into eight arbitrary forms. (II. 9.) 
 
 As the Deluge occupies so prominent a position in Cliinose cosmo- 
 gony, the First Man or Shang-te is rather Fuh-he than Pwan-koo, yet 
 it is plain that the former is only a re-appearance of the latter; or, in 
 other words, the Chinese classical Shang-te is the same Being as the 
 "•Great Father," worshii)i)od by the whole Pagan world under the 
 different de.-ignations of Jupiter, Baal, Osiris, Bralini, &.C., Adam 
 re-appearing in Soah. 
 
 VI. The above system of theology will bo found, on examination, 
 to correspond with remarkable accuracy, to the general system adopted 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 405 
 
 by the subjects of Nimrod's kingdom before their dispersion, and 
 which was afterwards carried by them into the various countries 
 where they settled. 
 
 1, The Yih-king is the Chinese authority on Cosmogony, and the 
 doctrines of the Chinese philosophers are derived from this source. 
 The doctrine of the endless succession of similar worlds as drawn from 
 this ancient classic by Choo-foo-tsze (II., 1.) has striking points of 
 resemblance to that taught by the stoics. Choo-tsye attributes the 
 destruction of each universe to the degeneracy of the human race, and 
 also states that each return to chaos is caused by a general deluge. 
 
 These rounds of nature are designated "Great Revolutions'''' or 
 " Years''' of the world. The circle in Avhich the universe is supposed 
 to revolve is divived into twelve portions thus, 
 
 '% 
 
 TSZ 
 
 1 
 
 Of, 
 
 '"m* 
 
 
 f.\ 
 
 A. 
 
 
 Af 
 
 -r 
 
 OOM 
 
 > 
 
 Each complete revolution of this circle is called a " Ftifw," and 
 each subdivision a "7/«'?/y" A Hwuy is generally supposed to 
 consist of 10,800 years: on this point, however, the philosophers 
 differ. In the first Hwuy, which answers to the Fuh Diagram of the 
 Yih-king, Heaven (Shang-te) emerges from the Ovum mundi or 
 Chaos; in the second. Earth; and in the third, Man; each world 
 commencing with this Triad. The Deluge prevails during the 12th 
 and last Hwuy, that is the ninth period from the formation of the 
 First Man, and on the return to the first Hwuy, the universe is again 
 generated from chaos as before. The Cycle, which is formed by the 
 combination of this Circle with another of ten divisions, is said to 
 have been invented by " Naou the Great" after the Deluge. — See 
 Kae-peih-yeu-e, vol. i., pp. 1,2; also Kang-keen, &c., p. 11. 
 VOL. XVI. 2 E 
 
406 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 ''After an interval of rest, says Seneca, in which the Deity will be 
 intent upon his own conceptions (II. 1,) the world will be entirely 
 renewed; every animal will be reproduced, and a race of men free 
 from guilt, and born under happier stars will repeople the earth. 
 Degeneracy and corruption will, however, again creep into the world; 
 for it is only when the human race is young that innocence remains 
 upon the earth. The grand course of things from the birth to the 
 destruction of tlie World, which, according to the Stoics, is to be 
 repeated with endless succession is accomplished within a certain period. 
 This period, or fated round of nature, is probably what the ancients 
 meant by the Great Year.'" — Enfield's Hist, of Philos. vol. i., p. 341. 
 
 Mind or Shang-te, who is inherent in Cliaos, generates the world 
 from his own body, Matter; and after the expiration of a certain 
 period, swallows up his offspring again ; he himself remaining like 
 "the Deity" of the Stoics, in profound quiescence during the Deluge, 
 Thus Shang-te corresponds to the "Devouring Jupiter" of the Stoics. 
 
 " The world, says Seneca, being melted, and having re-entered into 
 the bosom of Jupiter, this God continues for some time totally concen- 
 tred in himself, and remains concealed, as it were, wholly immersed 
 in the contemplation of his own ideas. Afterwards we see a new 
 world spring from him perfect in all its parts," &.c. — Faber's Orig. of 
 Pag. Idol., vol. i. p. 139. 
 
 2. Thus Jupiter and Shang-te are tJie same Being ; for, 
 
 a. Shang-te is the pure Ether or Fire (II., 4.) 
 
 " The Stoics held that the ether was signified by the name of 
 Jove." — Cudworth, vol. i., p. 428, note. 
 
 " Let Jupiter, therefore, be no longer that fiery and etliereal sub- 
 stance, which the ancient Pagans, according to Plutarch, supposed him 
 to be," &c.— Ibid. p. 424. 
 
 b. Shang-te is placed at the outer circle of Heaven or the Universe, 
 which consists of nine spheres (III., 10). Cicero says, 
 
 "All things arc connected together in nine spheres, of which one 
 is the celestial and outermost, which comprehends and encompasses all 
 the rest, the Supreme God himself confining and containing the 
 others." " But here," remarks Dr. Moshcim, " Cicero's summus Deus 
 is the last of those nine spheres of which the ancients supposed Heaven 
 io consist. — Cudworth, vol. ii., p. 127, note. 
 
 " The Stoical system teaches that both the active and passive 
 principles in nature are corporeal, since whatever acts or suffers must 
 be so. The efficient cause or QioA,\s pure ether or fire, iidiabiting 
 the exterior surface of the heavens, where everything whicii is divine 
 is placed," <S:c.— Enfield's Hist, of Philos., vol. i., p. 331. 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 407 
 
 c. Shang-te is the Soul of the World, containing and governing it 
 as the soul governs the body in man. (II., 7 h.) 
 
 " As we are governed by a soul, so also the world has a soul 
 which coniains it, and this soul is called Zey? or Jupiter," — Cudworth, 
 vol. ii., p. 296 note. 
 
 d. Shang-te is designated Mind. (II., 4, 7.) 
 
 "By Zeus the Greeks understood that Mind of the world which 
 framed all things in it, and containeth the world." — Ibid. vol. i., 
 p. 424. 
 
 e. Shang-te preserves the world in existence by his constant 
 gyrations. (III., 9.) 
 
 Jupiter is thus invoked in a passage in Euripides : — 
 
 " Thee, the self-sprung, I invoke, who enfoldest the whole nature 
 of things, whirling in ethereal gyration, around whom day and 
 variegated niglit, and the countless throng of stars perpetually dance." 
 —Ibid. p. 631 note. 
 
 f. Shang-te is a ticofold Soul, partly rational (V^kx'/) ^n^l partly 
 irrational (anima). See III., 2. 
 
 So Plutarch's "Ruler," or Jupiter; 
 
 "From this (evil soul)" i.e., anima, "and that orderly and best 
 substance," i. e. the rational and good soul, " God made it prudent 
 and regular, and imparting, as it were, intelligent form to sensitive, 
 regular to moving, appointed it tlie 7'tiler of the universe.'" — Ibid, 
 p. 335 note. 
 
 So also Plato : — 
 
 " Must we not necessarily say that the sowX governing and residing 
 in all things that move, governs also heaven {i. e. the world) 1 
 Assuredly. One or more 1 At least more than one ; nor ought we 
 to lay down fewer than tiro, the one henejicent, the other worhing 
 contrary things?''''- — Ibid. p. 339 note. 
 
 q. Shang-te or the World is a Man, and Man is a microcosm, the 
 Soul of the latter being twofold, like the soul of the world whence it 
 is derived. (IV., 1, 3.) 
 
 So Jupiter or the World : — 
 
 "Man, according to Plato, bears the image of tlie ivhole loorld ; 
 both the world and man being a compound of soul and matter, and 
 the soul of both, being partly rational and partly irrational." — Ibid, 
 p. 348 note. 
 
 " From this we see the nature, as well as the origin and birth, of 
 that soul which governs and rules the ivhole universe. That mun- 
 dane soul consists of two parts, &c. From this soul of the worhl 
 were derived, according to Plato's opinion, those souls by tohich our 
 
 2 E 2 
 
408 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 bodies are governed. What is said of it, therefore, we are to suppose 
 as said of these also. As the soul of the worhl consists of two parts, 
 one brute and irrational, the other rational and wise, so also our 
 mindsy — Ibid. p. 335 note. 
 
 h. The rational Soul of the World, or Shang-te proper, is desig- 
 nated God (Shin\ and hence the rational soul in Man being a 
 decerpted portion from this rational soul of the world, is designated 
 God (Shin\ See IV., 3, 4. 
 
 So also the V"'x'/ i^oafiov or Jupiter proper ; {a.) is designated God 
 {Oeof), and hence {b.) the rational soul in man, being a decerpted 
 portion from this rational soul of the world, is designated God 'Oeo<}) 
 also. 
 
 a. "God (^Oilov) is the soul {~^vx']) of the world.'' — Ibid. p. 211 
 note. 
 
 h. According to Zeno's doctrine, the '■ minds of men are parts of 
 God." — Ibid. vol. ii., p. 107 note. 
 
 "The Stoics do not hesitate frequently to call tJte liiiman mind 
 God."— Ibid. p. 1 06, note. 
 
 Vetet euim doniinans ilia in nobis Deus, injussu hinc nos demi- 
 grare." — Tusc. Disp. lib. i., cap xxx. Ixxiv. 
 
 Hence also, as men are called Gods (Shin) in China, so were they 
 called Gods (9g'oO in Greece and elsewhere ; 
 
 " it is « common practice with the Stoics and Platonists to 
 
 call men (jods, as supposing that the sovereign portion of man, namely, 
 the mind and rational soul, emanated from God himself, and is a part 
 of God ; and that if man bestows due care on this part, and abstracts 
 it from body, he then becomes wholly like unto God, nay altogether 
 a god." — Cudworth, vol, i., p. 373, note. 
 
 " Wherefore, m order to be consistent, they ought also to have 
 placed all souls among the gods, and to have mutually paid divine 
 honours to each other." — Ibid. vol. ii., p. 106, note. 
 
 According to the Chinese not only Mind but also, 
 
 "Human speech and action belong to the Shin (God). — 
 
 Medhurst's " Theology," &c., j). 9. 
 
 And according to the Stoics, 
 
 " Even mind and voice arc corporeal, and in like manner Dt i/j/." — 
 Enfield's Hist, of Pliilos., vol. i., p. 332. 
 
 i. Sliang te, the animated Heaven, receives various titles in the 
 Chinese Classics; e.rj. "The vast and sublime Shang-te," S.c. (III., 10.) 
 So also Jupiter, or the animated Heaven ; 
 
 " Aspice hoc sublime candens, quern invocant omncs Jovem, &c. 
 The reason of which speeches seems to have been this, because in 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 409 
 
 ancient times some had supjiosed the animated licaven, cllcr, and au- 
 to be the supreme De/Y//.— Cudworth, vol. i., p. 423. 
 
 l\ The animated World, or Shang-te, generated and animated by 
 the God (Shin) Kar e^ox^v is designated " Heaven," and is the chief 
 numen worshipped in the state religion. (II., 3. 6.) 
 So the animated world or Jupiter : 
 
 " he (the God /.-at' e^oxv") generated the universe a blessed 
 
 God. — Timteus, sec. 13. 
 
 " The world, and that which by another name is called Heaven, by 
 whose circumgyration all things are governed, ought to be believed a 
 numen, eternal, immense, such as never was made, and shall never be 
 destroyed."— Cudsvorth, vol. i., p. 210. 
 
 " Let the universe then be called Heaven, or the world, or by any 
 other name which it usually receives," &c. — Tiraseus, sec. i. 
 
 I. Shang-te, or Mind, or the animated universe, must not be con- 
 founded with idols; (III., 11). 
 
 So also Jupiter, or the animated universe ; 
 
 " Seneca speaks of the Tuscan augurs as employing the terrors of 
 Jupiter's lightnings to keep in awe those who could only be restrained 
 from wickedness by fear ; and adds, that they believed the thunder 
 of heaven to be in the hands not of the Jupiter worshipped by the 
 Romans in the Capitol and other te7}iples, hut of a Supreme Intelligence, 
 the (guardian and governor of the universe, the maker and lord of this 
 world. But, he adds, ' to this Deity agree the several names of Fate, 
 Providence, Nature, or the universe sustaining itself hy its am energy ; 
 a doctrine we shall afterwards see was held by the Stoics." — Enfield's 
 Hist, of Philos. vol. i.. 111. 
 
 m. Earth or Matter first generates Heaven or Shang-te, the ethe- 
 real Fire, and then consorting with this her son, she generates the rest 
 of creation, (II., 4, .5. III., 5.) 
 So also Heaven or Jupiter ; 
 
 " Earth first produced Heaven radiant with constellations ; that is, 
 the Jiery and more subtle particles of matter flew ofi" from the rest, and 
 rose to loftier regions, forming the heavens and the stars, &c. Then 
 Earth consorting ivith her own ofspring Heaven, gave birth to several 
 Deities, and last of all to Saturn," &c.— Cudworth, vol. i., 406, note. 
 
 Hence as Shang-te is either the Soul or Husband of the world, so 
 is Jupiter ; 
 
 n. Heaven or Shang-te and his wife the Earth, are astronomically 
 the Sun and Moon; (III., 7.) 
 
 " The Stoics, amongst the Greeks, look upon the fiery substance of 
 the whole world (and especially the Sun) as animated and intellectual, 
 to be the supreme Deity,"' &c.— Cudworth, Ibid. p. 472. 
 
410 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 "Jupiter is said to bo the Sun by Macrobius, Noimus, and tlio 
 author of the poems which bear the name of Oipheus."^ — Faber's Orig., 
 &c., vol. ii., p. 206. 
 
 " . . . . tlie Persians added the worsliip of the moon to that of the 
 sun, and regarded the moon as the sun's wife." — Cudworth, vol. i., 
 p. 473, note. 
 
 0. Man is the offspring of Heaven or Shang-te and Earth, liis wife ; 
 tlie former gives the soul, the latter the body ; and at death these re- 
 turn to their respective sources. (II., 7, III., 6, V., 1.) 
 
 " The mighty earth and the ether of Jove, the ftither of men and 
 gods, generate the human race. What is produced from the earth goes 
 hack again to earth, and that which springs from ethereal seed returns 
 to the celestial pole.'' — Ibid. vol. iii., p. 279, note. 
 
 " Earth is the mother, she produces the hodg ; ether adds the soul." 
 — Ibid. p. 280, note. 
 
 3. Cliaos animated by Mind is the chief god (Shang-te) of the 
 Chinese Philosophers. (II., 2, c; 3.) 
 
 " This Chaos, which was also called Night, was in the most ancient 
 times worshipped as one of the superior divinities." — Enfield's Hist, of 
 Philos., vol. i., p. 90. 
 
 Besides the material principle, " the Egyptians admitted a7i active 
 principle, or intelU<jent power, eternally united with the chaotic mass, 
 by whose energy the elements were separated and bodies were formed, 
 •and who continually presides over the universe, and is the etticient 
 cause of all things." — Ibid, 
 
 4. The K'e when in its chaotic state is designated " one," and this 
 " one" is a compound Being composed of two Beings, a Male (Heaven) 
 and a Female (Earth). (II , 2, c. III., 4, 5.) Thus all things are gene- 
 rated from an hermaphroditic unity. The whole Pagan world likewise 
 held that, 
 
 " All things were produced from an hermaphroditic unity.''''— Faber's 
 Orig. etc. vol. iii. p. 69. 
 
 5. Chaos, properly so called, is the Water, which is a turbid and 
 muddy mass from which all things are generated by the inherent 
 Mind ; (II., 4, a.) 
 
 " It is probable that by the term Water Thales meant to express 
 the same idea which the Cosmogonists expressed by the word chaos, 
 the notion annexed to which was, as we have shown, a turbid and 
 muddy mass, from which all things were produced."' — Enfield's Hist., 
 ifec, vol. i., p. IT)!. 
 
 6. The Eternal Matter, or K'e, is two-fold, gross and subtle 
 <II.,4.) 
 
 The Pagan Philosoj)hcrs of other nations also, 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 411 
 
 " . . . . supposed two kinds of matter : one a grosser nature and 
 dissolvable from various causes; the other more siihtle, and capable of 
 
 eiug destroyed by divine power alone." — Cudwortb, vol. iii., p. HI, 
 note. 
 
 Thus the K'e, or material "Nature" (I., 4 c.) is one whole, consist- 
 ing of a subtle Ether or Fire, which is the active principle (Shin — 
 God), and grosser matter which is the passive principle, and the 
 ethereal body of the former, which is the animating Mind or Soul : 
 both of these being in reality the same substance — K'e, air ; 
 
 "Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and after them Zeno, taking it for 
 granted that there was no real existence which is not corporeal, con- 
 ceive nature to be one ivliole, consisting of a subtle ether and gross 
 matter, the former Active, and the latter the Passive Principle, as 
 essentially united as the soul and body in man ; that is, they supposed 
 
 God, with respect to nature, to be not a co-existing, but an informing 
 principle." — Enfield's Hist., tkc, vol i., p. 335. 
 
 8. The two principles are Light, the Active, and Darkness, the 
 Passive Principle. The latter la prior to the former (IT., 6). 
 
 " The mits aruneus being blind, is said to have been deified by the 
 Egyptians, because they thought that darkness teas older than light.'" 
 — Cudworth, vol. i., p. 399. 
 
 9. Hwae Nan-tsze, and some others, designate both these princi- 
 ples " God (Shin) ;" but the generality of the Chinese Thilosophers 
 designate the Light or Good Principle " God (Shin)," and the Dark- 
 ness or Evil Principle "Demon (Kwei}," III., 1. According to 
 Plutarch, 
 
 " Zoroaster and the ancient Magi made good and evil, light and 
 darkness, the two substantial principles of the universe, that is, asserted 
 an evil demon co-eternal with God, and independent of him," &c. — 
 Ibid. p. 486. 
 
 This class, " called the better principle God, and the worse demon;' 
 &c.— Ibid. 371, note. 
 
 . " Some suppose that there are tiro gods, as it were of contrary arts, 
 so that one is the author of good, the other of evil things ; others call 
 him that is better a, god, but the other a demon only." — Ibid. 354. 
 
 " . . . . almost all the oriental nations believe the all-pervading 
 light to be God." — Ibid. p. 475, note. 
 
 "In the earliest ages, God himself was believed to be ligJit and 
 ether."— Ih'id. vol. iii., 279. 
 
 10. The Light or MiiND proper is the first generated God (Shin), 
 and is the chief God of the Chinese Pantheon (II., 5); 
 
 So Jupiter or the Light, 
 
412 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 " But tlio earth being then invisiole by reason of the darkness, a 
 liillit breaking out through the ether illumined the whole creation ; 
 this light being said by him (Orpheus) to be that hir/hest of oil Beings 
 (before mentioned} which is called counsel and life." — Ibid. vol. i., 
 p. 503. 
 
 11. The K'e, which emanates from the God (Shtn), atot' e^oxyf 
 (I., 3), consists of two principles: the one Light or an intellectual God 
 (Shin), the other Darkness or an evil Demon (Kwei'). So Zoroaster ; 
 
 " If these authorities be carefully compared, it will appear probable 
 that Zoroaster, adopting the principle commonly held by the ancients, 
 that from nothing, nothing can be produced, conceived ligihi, or those 
 spiritual substances which partake of the active nature of fire, and 
 Darkness or the impenetrable opaque and passive mass of matter, to 
 be emanations from one Eternal Source ; that to the derived sub- 
 stances he gave the names already applied by the Magi to the causes 
 of good and evil : Oromasdes and Araminius, and that the first 
 Fountain of Being, or the Supreme Divinity, he called Mithras." — 
 Enfield's Hist. &c., vol. i., p. 64. 
 
 Hence in the Shin, ica-i i^ox>]i', of the Confucian Classics we have 
 Mithras, or the Oeo^ kut e^ox-']v of Zoroaster ; and in the twofold 
 matter generated by the former, we have Zoroaster's two generated 
 deities, viz., Oromasdes (Shang-te) and Araminius. 
 
 12. Chaos consists of a rational Soul inherent in matter ; or three 
 hypostases, viz.. Reason, Mind, and Matter. Mind, or Shang-te, being 
 merely the Demiurge or second God, who owes his existence and all 
 his povvers to the Divine Reason (II., 4, 7). 
 
 So the Egyptians, &c., 
 
 " . . . . they determining mind and reason first to have existed of 
 themselves, and so the whole world to have been made. Wherefore 
 they acknowledge before the heaven and in the heaven a living power, 
 and place pure mind above the world as the Demiurgus and architect 
 thereof." — Cud worth, vol. i., p, 540. 
 
 The maker of the world icas not " the Supreme Being, but .... 
 far below the parent and founder of all things."— Ibid. p. 5.98, note. 
 
 " Among the rw/ers" of the world, " Jamblicus assigns the first 
 place to the Demiurgic Mind, which he tells us is Amnion, Plitha, and 
 Osiris." — Ibid. p. 602, note. 
 
 Thus, although a God (Shin), kot' C^ox']i', "ho is in reality the 
 Father of all things, is ackr.owlcdged by the Confucianists, yet this 
 First God is wholly neglected by them, and the second God, or 
 Shang-to receives all the wort-hip due in reality to the First ; no 
 higher God being recognized in the state religion than this Demiurge, 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 413 
 
 who is regarded as the Creator himself. In this, however, the Chinese 
 resemble the rest of the Pagan world, e.g., 
 
 " The Father perfected all things, that is, the intelligible ideas (for 
 these are those things which are complete and perfect), and delivered 
 them to the second God to rule over them. Wherefore, Whatsoever is 
 produced by this God according to its own exemplar, and the intelli- 
 gible essence, must needs owe its original also to the highest Father. 
 Which second God the generations of men coimnonly lake for the first, 
 they looking up no higher than to the iminedate architect of the 
 world."— Ibid. p. 484. 
 
 13. In the Chinese Chaos we have Plato's Trinity, viz., 1. The in- 
 divisible Unity, or First God, the Soul of the K'e, or Shang-te 
 2. Mind, or Shang-te proper, the rational portion of the Soul of the 
 world; and 3. The anima nuindi, or irrational portion of the soul of 
 the world (II., 4). 
 
 " . . . . these three divine hypostases of the Egyptians with the 
 Pythagoric or Platonic trinity of first, to eV, or t' a^iuOov unitij and 
 goodness itself, secondly, vovs, mind, and thirdly, Y^i'X'/ (*-6-j a,nima), 
 SouV—lh\A. p. 601 (see also pp. 484-.5). 
 
 14. The two principles of Light and Darkness ultimately become 
 the twofold soul of the world, intellect being first placed in this soul 
 by the God (Shin) Ka-r' t^oYei', and the soul being then placed in body, 
 viz., the universe (III., 3, 4). 
 
 So Plato, 
 
 " In pursuance of this reasoning, placing intellect in soul, and soul 
 in body, he (the Geos- kut e^oxiji',) constructed tha universe." — Timajus, 
 ch. 10. 
 
 15. Shang-te complete is the whole animated world, Heaven is his 
 head, Earth (including Tartarus, ii., 2 e), his feet, the Sun and Moon 
 are his eyes, his rational soul (Noys- or Mind) is the pure ether &c., &c. 
 (IV., 2; v., 1.) 
 
 So Jupiter. 
 
 " The whole universe constituted one body; the body of that king 
 from whom originated all things; and within that body every elemental 
 principle alike revolved; for all things were contained within the vast 
 womb of the God. Heaven was his head; the bright beams of the 
 stars were his radiant locks; the east and the west those sacred roads 
 of the immortals were his tauriform horns; the sun and the moon 
 were his eyes; the grosser atmosphere was his back, &c. ; the all 
 productive earth was his sacred womb; the circling ocean was his 
 belt; the roots of the earth, and the nether regions of Tartarus were 
 his feet; his body the universe was radiant, immoveable, eternal; and 
 
414 CHIKESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 the pure ether was his intellectual soul, the mighty Ji'ous by which he 
 pervades, animates, preserves, and governs all things." — Faber s Orig. 
 &c., vol. i., p. 42. 
 
 So also the Egyptian Serapis, 
 
 " The celestial world is my head; the sea is my womb, the earth 
 supplies to me the place of feet; the pure ether furnishes me with ears; 
 and the bright lustre of the sun is my eye." — Ibid. p. 43. 
 
 16. The Chinese and Stoics agree precisely in their ideas of Man. 
 Man according to the Stoics and others, had a twofold body, viz., 
 Head and Feet ; and a two-fold soul, viz., Demon and God {Ocos), 
 This they transferred to the universe or Heaven, i.e. Jupiter. Accord- 
 ing to the Chinese also, Man's body is two-fold, viz.. Head and Feet; 
 and his soul is two-fold, viz., Demon and God (Shin): and this they 
 have also transferred to the universe or Heaven, i. e. Shang-te. 
 
 VII. Shang-te or Mind is the " Great Father" (Adam reappearing 
 in Noah) worshipped by the whole Pagan world, under the various 
 designations Jupiter, Baal, Brahm, Osiris, Eros, &c., &c. 
 
 1. Shang-te or Mind, the creative Soul of the world, is born from 
 the ovum mimdi. (II., 2 e: 5.) 
 
 "We perpetually meet with a legend of the great father being 
 born out oi an egg, &c." — Faber's Orig. &c., vol. i., p. 171. 
 
 " The creative soul of the world therefore, which triplicates itself 
 at the renovation of the mundane system is produced out of an egg, 
 which floated during the intermediate period between two worlds, on 
 the surface of the ocean, notwithstanding it is described as being the 
 productive cause of all things." — Ibid. p. 172. 
 
 2. Shang-te triplicates his substance into //iree worlds, viz.. Heaven, 
 Earth, and Man, which, however, are regarded as being but one 
 universe. (II., 8, III., 6.) 
 
 " Whether they (the Pagan world) addicted themselves to Demono- 
 latry, to Sabianism, or to gross materialism, we still invariably find 
 the same propensity to the triple division, which was esteemed so 
 peculiarly dear to the god whom they worshipped. Pursuant to such 
 a speculation the unity of the whole world, that supposed body of the 
 great father was divided into what were called three w^orlds, though 
 the three were nevertheless fundamcnlally but one universe," A:c. — 
 Ibid. pp. 44, &c. 
 
 This Triad consists of two gods, viz., " Imperial Heaven," or 
 Shang-te, and "Man;" and one goddess, viz., "Empress Earth;" so 
 that under this Triad we have " Heaven" or Shang-te, the father; 
 Earth, the mother; and Man, their son. 
 
 " Thus we find (amongst the Pagan mythologists) triads consisting 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 415 
 
 of a go J and two goddesses, and again of two gods and one rjoddess 
 
 Each of these principal varieties had also its snb-vaiieties. Under 
 
 the second we have a, father, a mother, and a sow." — Ibid. p. 24. 
 
 These three Beings are also styled " Heaven-Emperor, Earth- 
 Emperor, and Man-Emperor," being three sovereigns who divide the 
 universe between them. (V., 1.) 
 
 "Noah was esteemed the universal sovereign of the world; but 
 when he branched out into three kings, that world was to be divided 
 into three kingdoms, or (as they were sometimes styled) three worlds. 
 To one of the three kings, therefore, was assigned the empire of 
 heaven; to another, the empire of the earth, including the nether 
 regions of Tartarus; to a third, the empire of the ocean. Yet the 
 characters of the three kings as we examine them mutually melt into 
 each other ; until at length we find but one world and one sovereign, 
 who rules with triple sway the three grand mundane divisions." — Ibid, 
 p. 17. 
 
 3. This great Hermaphroditic Shang-te, who thus triplicates his 
 substance, is also said in the Yihdving, to divide into eight Beings or 
 portions. The great Father triplicates, generating three sons; the 
 great Mother .triplicates generating three daughters; and these three 
 brothers united with their three sifters, are designated "the six 
 children."— See Yih-king, vol. xii., ch. xvii., p. 18. (II., 9, V., 2.) 
 
 " The genuine triad doubtless consisted of three sons born from one 
 father, and united in marriage with their three sisters; and tliis was 
 sometimes mystically expressed under the notion of tlie primeval 
 Demon-god wonderfully triplicating his substance, &c. We shall 
 constantly find the old hierophants confessing, that in reality they 
 have but one god, and one goddess, for that all the male divinities 
 may be ultimately resolved into the great father, as all the female 
 divinities finally resolve themselves into the great mother." — Ibid, 
 p. 24. 
 
 This Ogdoad or " Eight Diagrams" of the Yih-king, are materially 
 "Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, Water, Fire, Mountains, and Dew," 
 (II., 9) ; a most arbitrary division of the great Demon-god Shang-te, 
 or the animated universe. 
 
 " There was another characteristic of the chief Demon-god which 
 was not to be overlooked. The ancients well knew that his family at 
 the commencement of Z/o/JA worlds consisted oi eight persons . . . and 
 at all hazards these determined analogical speculatists were resolved 
 to elicit the number eight from the reluctant frame of the unbending 
 universe. From the whole connection of this legend there can be no 
 doubt, I thiuk, that the eight forms of the great father mean the eight 
 
416 CIIINESr: THEOLOGY. 
 
 persons u-Jio were saved in flic arlc ; those eiglit persons whom the 
 Egyptians adored as their chief gods, and whom they depicted sailing 
 together in a t^hip over the ocean. Yet, when the same great father 
 is materially identified with the universe, his eight forms are then 
 expressly pronounced to be the somewhat heterogeneous ogdoad of 
 Water, Fire, Sacrifice, the Sun, the Moon, Ether, Earth, Air ... An 
 Ogdoad is said to have been produced from the womb of the herma- 
 phroditic Jupiter, who is described as the great parent identified with 
 the universe; but, while it is just as heterogeneous in point of compo- 
 sition as the last," and also, we may add, as the Chinese Ogdoad, " its 
 members are hy no means coincident, though the sum total in both 
 cases equiiUy produces the number eir/ht. This second ogdoad consists 
 of Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Night, Day, Metis, and Eros. Here again 
 as in the case of the former one," and of the Chinese, ■' the members 
 are plainly accomiuodated to the number; the number is not chosen, 
 because by a natural arrangement the members exactly amounted to 
 eight, but eight members are arbitrarily associated together because 
 the precise number eight had been previously selected, and the sum 
 total was to be made up whether congruously or incongruously." — 
 Ibid. pp. 44-46. 
 
 4. The Ovum vntndi, or sacred circle, out of which Shang-te and 
 his family are generated after the Deluge, represents either the Chaotic 
 World in which Mind is hidden in the womb of Earth or Matter, or 
 the arranged and completed Universe of which i\IiND is still the ani- 
 mating Soul (II , 2, e). 
 
 Of the Ovum mundi Mr. Faber says : 
 
 "The ancient pagans, in almost every part of the globe, were 
 wont to symbolize the world by an egg. Hence this hieroglyphic is 
 introduced into the cosmogonies of nearly all nations ; and few are 
 the persons, even those who have not made mythology their peculiar 
 study, to whom the mundane Qgg is not perfectly familiar. The 
 symbol was employed to represent not only the Earth, but likewise 
 the universe in its largest extent," &c. 
 
 '■ But there was another world which the hieroglyphical egg was 
 employed to represent, :is well as the Earth or Universe. At the 
 period of the Deluge, the rudiments of the new world were enclosed 
 together within the Ark, which floated on the surface of the ocean in 
 the same manner as the globe of the Earth was thought to have floated 
 in the waters of Chaos. Hence the Ark was esteemed a microcosm or 
 little world ; and hence arose a complete intercommunion of symbols 
 between the Ark and the Earth. The egg accordingly, being made a 
 symbol of the Earth was also made a symbol of the Ark," etc. 
 
CIIIXESE THEOLOGY. 417 
 
 " As the globe, wliicli is a solid circle, is sometimes substituted for 
 the egg, so the circle or ring, which is a plain sphere, sometimes occu- 
 pies the place of the globe," &c. — Ibid. pp. 175, 176, 189. 
 
 5. With regard to the confusion, visible also in the Chinese system, 
 between the Creation and the Deluge, and the blending together of the 
 Adamic and Noetic families (V., 2), Mr. Faber says, 
 
 " The primitive world commenced with a single pair ; who may 
 indeed have had other children, but who were chiefly memorable as 
 being the parents of a triad of sons espoused to a triad of daughters," 
 &e. 
 
 " Now it is a curious circumstance that in all these particulars, the 
 new world, with more or less exactness, resembles the old. It also 
 commenced from a single pair, remarkable as having for their offspring 
 a triad of sons espoused to a triad of daughters-in-law, &c. 
 
 " Such being the clear analogy between the histories of the two 
 worlds a fresh theoretical refinement was built upon it. The doctrine 
 of a mere succession of worlds was heightened to the doctrine of a 
 succession of similar worlds. Each mundane system was thought to 
 present an exact reseml.lance of its predecessor. The same persons 
 appeared in new bodies, &c. 
 
 " Agreeably to these speculations, while Noah and Adam are each 
 esteemed the great universal father both of gods and men, the former 
 was supposed to be no other than a re-appearance of the latter ; and 
 in a similar manner, the divine souls which once animated the Adami- 
 tical triad, were thought to have been again incarnate in the persons 
 of the Noetic triad," &c. — Ibid. pp. 11-14. 
 
 6. The designation given to Shang-te, who animates the world as 
 the soul does the body, is IMind (II., 2d: 4 & 7 b). 
 
 " A somewhat similar observation may be made on the name which 
 the Greeks employed to designate the all-pervading Mind or Intellect, 
 that was thought to animate and govern the world as the human soul 
 does the body. In point of matter of fact, this Mind was certainly tlie 
 great father or Noah vietced as a re-appearance of Adam. The Adami- 
 tical Noah, therefore, being the fabhd Mind of the world, the Greeks 
 borrowed the proper name (Nous or Niis) of that patriarch, and 
 employed it to describe Mind or Intellect " — Ibid. p. 173. 
 
 Hence Shang-te, the soul of the world, is the same as Janus, 
 Jupiter, &.C. 
 
 " . . . . the imnginary Soul of the World is the same as that ^-rra^ 
 universal father, both of gods and men, ichom the Gentiles adored under 
 so many different names : for Janus, Jupiter, Cronus, Dionusus, Osiris, 
 and Brahm, are all undoubtedly the great father ; and at the samo 
 
AIS CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 time they are all equally describctl as being fJie pervading soul of tie 
 ivorld.'"'' — Ibid. p. 170. 
 
 And, in the three MrxDis, or Emperors, into which this Demiurgic 
 Mind, or Shang-te, divides himself, we have the Platonic "three 
 kings " (V., 1 a); 
 
 "The demiurgic Mind or Soul which Proclus rightly identifies with 
 the creative hemaphroditic Jupiter of Orpheus and Plato, is said by 
 Amelias to have triplicated itself; so that this one Mind became three 
 Minds, or three Idnrjs, and these three Minds or demiurgic principles, 
 as Proclus subjoins, are the same as the Platonic three kings, and as 
 the Orphic triad of Phanes, and Uranus and Cronus." — Ibid. p. 171. 
 
 7. Shang-te is also the Husband of the Earth or World which 
 forms his body or Wife (ii., 7, iii., 5). These two Beings are wor- 
 shipped under the titles " Imperial Heaven " and " Empress Earth," 
 sind the whole universe or Shang-te is a great Hemaphroditic Deity 
 formed by their union ; 
 
 "This Intelligent Being who was indifferently the soul and the 
 husband of the world, was the great father or principal Demon-god of 
 the Gentiles ; while his hodi/ or consort, the Earth, was their primeval 
 great mother or chief goddess. The two were allowed to be the most 
 ancient of their deities, and the first of the Cabiric gods ; and they 
 were ever venerated conjointly in different countries under the names 
 of Coelus and Terra, Osiris and Isis, Taautes and Astartc, Saturn and 
 Ops, Woden and Frea, or Isani and /««'." — Ibid. p. 165. 
 
 " The writings of the old mythologists strongly maintain the doc- 
 trine which identifies both the great father and the great mother, or 
 these two persons blended into one compound hermapliroditic character 
 with the whole material creation.''' — Ibid. p. 41. 
 
 8. Shang-te and his wife the Earth, are worshipped as the patrons 
 of generation, and are represented indecorously (III. 8). 
 
 " These two ancient personages, from whom all things were allowed 
 to have been produced, were on that account esteemed the jiatrons of 
 generation, and were thought to preside over births of every sort and 
 description. They were reckoned the two principles of fecundity, 
 whether animal or vegetable ; and as the universe was supposed to 
 have originated from their mystic union, they were in everi/ quarter of 
 the globe, represented by two symbols : which were indeed sufficiently 
 expressive of their imagined attribute.?, but which cannot be s])ecilicd 
 consistenth/ icilh a due regard to decorum." — Ibid. p. 24. 
 
 9. Shang-te and his wife Earth, are astronomically the Sun and 
 Moon (III., 7); 
 
 " As they (the ancient hicrophants) highly venerated the souls of 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 419 
 
 their paradisiacal and arkite ancestors, considering them in the light 
 of Demon-gods who still watched and presided over the affairs of men: 
 it was a very easy step in the progress of apostate error to imagine 
 that they were translated to the lieavenli/ bodies, &.C. Since they per- 
 ceived the Sun and the Moon to be the two great lights of heaven, and 
 since they worshipped with an especial veneration the great father and 
 the great mother, they would naturally elevate these tiro personages fa 
 the two principal luminaries. Such accordingly was the plan they 
 adopted," &c. — Ibid. p. 31. 
 
 10. From the union of Mind and Matter, Shang-te, or the world, 
 is stated to be "a great man," and Man "a small world" (IV. 1) ; 
 
 For the same reason Mr. Faber says, 
 
 " . . , . physiologists were accustomed to style the world a great 
 man, and man a small icorld" &c. — Ibid. p. 163. 
 
 11. The souls of men are emanations from Shang-te (IV., 2 b) ; 
 
 " The souls of men consequently were reckoned to be emanations 
 from the great Soul, and were considered as fellows and members of 
 the principal deity." — Ibid. 
 
 12. All the other deities resolve themselves into Shang-te (Ibid, 
 and II., 9); 
 
 " Though the gentiles were ostensibly polytheists, yet in absolute 
 strictness of speech they worshipped only one great compound deity, 
 who was the reputed parent of the universe. All their gods ultimately 
 resolve themselves into a. single god, who was esteemed the great 
 father ; all their goddesses finally prove to be only one goddess, who 
 was accounted the great mother ; and these two beings at length 
 appear as a sole divinity, who was thought to partake of loth sexes, and 
 who was venerated as alike the father and the mother of the whole 
 world." — Ibid, vol ii., p. 205. 
 
 13. Shang-te remains inactive until the time arrives for the forma- 
 tion of a new world. During the period of the Deluge he remains 
 securely shut up in the ovum miindi (or Ark), all things being absorbed 
 into his substance (II., 1 a) ; 
 
 " Every thing is then (at the return to chaos) absorbed into the 
 unity of the great father ; and this mysterious being during the period 
 that elapses between each two mundane systems, reposes on the surface 
 of the mighty deep, floating securely, either in a iconderful egg or in 
 the calix of the lotos, or on a naviform leaf, or on a huge serpent coiled 
 up in the form of a boat, or in a sacred ship denominated Argha, of 
 which the other vehicles are consequently symbols. To destroy, how- 
 ever, is but to create afresh, for destruction affects form alone ; it 
 reaches not to substance. Hence when the great father has slept a 
 
420 CHINESE THROLOOY. 
 
 whole year of tlie creator, the simcc which ever intervenes between 
 world and world, he awakes from his slumber, and produces a new 
 order of things. Out of the chaotic materials of the prior world, 
 another world is fashioned," &c. — Ibid. vol. 1., p. 112. 
 
 14. Shang-te's body is the world, and his soul is the soul of the 
 world. All things are generated by hiui and return to his substance 
 (11,2 b, III., 2, IV., 2 b); 
 
 So also the great father of the whole Pagan world ; 
 
 "All nature was produced frovi 7/im and returned io him; all 
 nature was his hody ; and his pervading spirit was the soul of the 
 world''' — Ibid. p. 40. 
 
 15. Shang-te is the Son or Father of the Earth or Ark (II,, 5) ; 
 and the 
 
 " . . . . speculations of Paganism .... represented Noah both 
 as the father and as the son of the Ark," cfe. — Ibid. p. 198. 
 
 16. Shang-te is merely a Man (IV., 1, V., 1, 2); 
 
 '• The person, therefore, who in the mythology of the Pagans is 
 venerated as the creator of the world, who is esteemed the Soul of the 
 Universe, and of whom every thing material, whether great or small, 
 is a member or form, is plainly not the Supreme Being, whom by their 
 perverted wisdom they had ceased to know ; but a mere man who was 
 deemed the head and jjarent of each successive similar world, who was 
 thought to have produced and still to animate every living creature, 
 and who was worshipped as the chief god and oldest of the Demon- 
 gods."— Ibid, p. 49. 
 
 17. This First Man is regarded as an Hermaphrodite. fV., 1, a.); 
 " The notion of the first created man being an Hermaphrodite has 
 
 doubtless arisen from a misconception of the primeval tradition, which 
 through Noah was handed down to the builders of the tower, respect- 
 ing the process of forming the original pair. As the woman sprang 
 out of the side of the man, and as therefore she made a part of him 
 before such disjunction, it was mystically said that Adam or Swayam- 
 bhuva was androgynous, and that all things were produced from an 
 hermaphroditic unity " — Ibid. vol. iii., p. GS. 
 
 18. The Source of all Shang-te's powers, however, is the God 
 (Shin) Kar t^oxi)'', who unites with his Soul or Mind. (II,. 7) ; 
 
 "For them (those who rejected two independent jjrinciples) 
 Wisdom, ever kindly ready to solve all difficulties, had provided ano- 
 ther expedient. This wa.s, since the great triplicated father was con- 
 fessedly eternal, to identifi/ him nith the Deiti/ ; and since matter was 
 also eternal to make the Soul of the great father the Soul of the world, 
 and to give him the whole universe for his body. But here it would 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 421 
 
 readily be objected, how can the mere man Adam or Noah, whose 
 office it is to appear at the bet^inning of every new workl, be admitted 
 as God, when his form had been always that of a simple mortal 1 To 
 this question Wisdom is at no less for a reply ; the body indeed was 
 the body of a man, but the immortal soul was the Deiti/ himself; from 
 time to time he descends and becomes incarnate in the person of the 
 great Father, and on special occasions appears in the form of other 
 eminent characters ; the spirit of this eternal great Father with whom 
 when multiplied into three forms each world commences, is to be 
 revered as the true plastic arranger and governor of the universe ; 
 beside him there is no God, for his three forms or his eight forms are 
 equally a delusion, emanating from him, and resolvable into his sacred 
 essence." (II., 8, 9.) 
 
 " Thus, as the Apostle speaks, did Wisdom teach mankind," in- 
 cluding the founders of the Chinese Empire, " at Babel, to change 
 the truth of God into a lie, and to worship the creature more than or 
 in preference to the Creator." — Ibid. vol. i., p. 102. 
 
 From the above statements it appears: 1. That the Chinese sys- 
 tem of Theology, as derived from the Yih-king, corresponds in a very 
 remarkable manner to all the other Pagan systems : 2. That this 
 remarkable agreement not only extends to what is " obvious and 
 natural," but also to "arbitrary circumstantials," proving that the 
 Chinese have not borrowed from any other nation : and this proof is 
 rendered still stronger by the fact that these " circumstantials" differ 
 in detail from those of all other systems {e. g., the Triad and Ogdoad). 
 3. Hence the conclusion is inevitable that the Chinese also derived 
 their system from one primeval system common to all the Pagans : or, 
 in other words, that the founders of the Chinese Empire formed a part 
 of the single community assembled on the plain of Shiuar, under 
 Nimrod, before the dispersion, and after that event carried to China 
 that idolatrous system which has existed there to the present day. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 As the above system appears to me to throw light upon the 
 unhappy controversy which has now been carried on for some years 
 in China, I shall make a few remarks here on this subject. 
 
 The want of a new translation of the Scriptures into the Chinese 
 language, has long been felt by the missionaries in China. Some 
 years ago preparations were made to supply this want, and the 
 delegates appointed at the various missionary stations to engage in 
 this work, assembled at Shang-hae in the month of June, 1847. 
 VOL. XVI. 2 F 
 
4-22 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 These gentlemen had scarcely commencecl their haboiirs, when a 
 difference of opinion arose amongst them with regard to the proper 
 
 Chinese term to be used as the translation of □^rt'^M and Gcos, One 
 
 A* ■•■ : 
 party considered that the Chinese term " Shin " is the translation 
 of these terms, and the other thought that wherever these terms 
 occurred in the Scriptures, the designation of the being most honoured 
 by the Chinese, viz., " Shang-te," should be inserted in the Chinese 
 translation, the term "Shin" appearing to them to signify "Sjjirit,'' 
 and not " God." 
 
 This difference of opinion gave rise to a viva voce discussion which 
 lasted for some days : and the discussion was afterwards carried on in 
 writing for about five months. Afterwards, several missionaries pub- 
 lished their views on the subject. Neither party, however, having 
 been at all influenced by the arguments of the opposite one, this 
 important question remains still undecided ; and the Bible Society, 
 feeling unable to decide which opinion is correct, has generously 
 offered to assist each party in printing the new translation, with the 
 terms of which they severally approve, throwing any responsibility 
 which may attach to this course on the several Missionary Societies. 
 
 It is, however, a matter of the utmost importance, that we who 
 are privileged to preach the Gospel of Christ to the Chinese, should 
 " with one month,"' as well as " with one heart," proclaim the glad 
 tidings of salvation ; and hence, with an humble desire to promote, 
 if possible, so excellent an object, I haA^e endeavoured to lay before 
 the reader the complete system of theology inculcated in the classical 
 writings. I feel sure that the only way to bring the controversy to a 
 favourable termination, is to lay before classical scholars the very 
 striking similarity which exists between the Chinese and all other 
 Pagan systems. 
 
 It appears to me that in investigating any Pagan system of philo- 
 60])hy, we should take especial care to ascertain the ideas attached to 
 important terms hij Heathen writers themselves. For if caution bo 
 not exercised on this point, we are in danger, by affixing a Christian 
 sense to such terms, of giving the Heathen credit for an amount of 
 knowledge which they never possessed, and of thus damaging any 
 conclusions we may draw from our own researches. 
 
 " It is the custom with a great many," says Dr. Mosheim, " to 
 believe the ancients to have attached the same idea to words that we 
 do at this day, and to take for granted that the old philosophers 
 followed tht2 same laws and principles in their reasoning as ourselves : 
 hence they altogether remodel these Philosophers, and present them 
 before us, not as they really were, but such as they \coidd have heen^ 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 423 
 
 had tliey Icon educated in our schools.'''' — Cudworth, vol. i., p. 53 
 note. 
 
 The mistakes whicb may arise from this method of interpreting 
 the works of Heathen writers, might be fully exemplified from what 
 has been published in China on the subject of the controversy above 
 alluded to. I shall, however, merely notice a few of the most important. 
 
 1. It has been strongly urged that the Chinese term " Shin" merely 
 means " spirit or spiritual," and not " God," because the Chinese 
 Philosophers, and also the literati of the present day (amongst whom 
 the Lieutenant Governor of Fokien Province has been appealed to) 
 define that term " Woo-hing," or " Incorporeal," and this term " In- 
 corporeal," it is taken for granted, is equivalent to our terms " spirit 
 or spiritual." Such would doubtless be the case in any Christian 
 work ; but it is not so in Chinese writings. This is plain from the 
 fact that Choo-foo-tsze, who has been appealed to by the writers on 
 both sides of the controversy, states, ch. xlix., p. 25, of his " Com- 
 plete Works," that Heaven, or the Subtle Ether, is "Incorporeal 
 (Woo-hing)," and the Ether is certainly not "spirit or spiritual" in 
 our sense of these terms. 
 
 The fact is that the terms " Incorporeal," " Immaterial," &c., 
 are used by the Chinese Philosophers in precisely the same way as 
 aaivfiarov was used by the Western Pagans, and must be considered 
 relativeli/, and not necessarily implying what we mean by these terms : 
 for, the same thing is sometimes pronounced by Pagan Philosophers to 
 . be both " material" and " immaterial," when spoken of in reference to 
 finer or more gross substances ; e g. : — 
 
 " MixD compared with Nature is more material, compared with 
 the K'e he is certainly more spiritual." (II , 4.) 
 
 Here Mind or the Y'^X'? i^'0(rf^iov, (i. e. Shang-te), which rules the 
 world, and is " Woo-hing," is stated to be either a " material" or 
 "immaterial" Being, according as he is compared with the God 
 KUT e^oxi)>', or with the more material world, in which he is inherent, 
 and which forms his body. On this subject Dr. Mosheim says, 
 
 " it a[)pears very doubtful, whether that which the ancients 
 
 termed aaw^nnov (Woo, not, hing, hodg), and incorporeal, was intended 
 to be such as what ice call spiritual and spirit. Certainly many things 
 seem to show, that that very thing which they supposed to be imma- 
 terial, was considered by them to consist of particles, although cer- 
 tainly the most subtle." — Cudworth, vol. i., p. 53, note. 
 
 That which this learned writer here states to be so doubtful, has, 
 in the case of the Chinese Philosophers, been taken for granted ; with 
 what degree of accuracy let th« passage quoted from the works of 
 
 2 F 2 
 
424 CHINE.^E THEOLOGY. 
 
 Choo-tsze testify. It is plain that a point so doubtful ought to have 
 been first proveJ, before any argument was built upon it, as to the 
 meaning of the term " Shin." 
 
 2. It has also been urged that " Shin" means " spirit or spiritual," 
 and not "God," because the rational soul in man is so designated. 
 This is, in fact, the great stronghohi of those who consider that the 
 term " Shin" means " Spirit," and not " God." 
 
 But here, it seems to me, two important points which ought to 
 have been first proved, before this argument can have any weight, have 
 been taken for granted ; viz, : frst, that the rational soul is in the 
 estimation of the Chinese Philosophers what ice call " spirit or spiri- 
 tual :" and, secondly, that the meaning which the Chinese themselves 
 attach to the term " God," renders it impossible that theii should apply 
 such a term to the rational soul. 
 
 Now with regard to the first point, the rational soul, in the opinion 
 of the Chinese, is a portion of the subtle Ether or Soul of the World 
 (iii., 2, b.), which according to oiir ideas is material, inasmuch as it 
 consists of particles, although, as Dr. Mosheim says, " the most subtle." 
 Hence an examination into the ideas entertained by the Chinese them- 
 selves as to the nature and origin of the soul, would have shown the 
 inconclusiveness of the argument alluded to, as to the meaning of the 
 term " Shin." With regard to' the second point : the Chinese Philoso- 
 phers have been shown to resemble the rest of the Pagan world in 
 holding "Shin," like Geo? and Dens, to be the Y^wx'/ Kotrftov, and the 
 rational soul in man to be an emanation from that Soul ; and hence we 
 find these two souls designated by the same term. In this case it is 
 plain that such an application of the term " Shin" no more necessarily 
 proves that term to mean "mere spirit," than the like application of 
 B605 and Dens proves that these terms mean " mere spirit," and not 
 " God." On the contrary, we have here a most remarkable point of 
 similarity in the use of the three terms, Shin, 9co«, and Deus. 
 
 The application which the Chinese Philosophers themselves make 
 of the term " Shin" in their writings, it appears to me, places it beyond 
 question that this term agrees precisely to the term " God" as used by 
 all Pagan Materialists ; for, 
 
 a. As all Pagan nations held one 6(o^- vot' cfo\»/i', so the Chinese 
 hold one Shin, ku^ c^oxip'-, the Author of all things. 
 
 h. The Chinese Pilosophers give precisely the same titles and attri- 
 butes to their Supreme " Shin" which the rest of the Pagan world gave 
 to their Supreme " Ofov," 
 
 c. The ])osition and power assigned to both "Shin" and "6c<)s" 
 in the Universe is i)rcciscly the same* 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 425 
 
 d. With regard to the first generated Deity, as "ahiiost all" the 
 Oriental nations call the Light " God ;" so the Chinese call it 
 " Shin." So that, as in the earliest ages " Go|l" was considered to 
 be Light and Ether, so do the Chinese consider " Shin" to be Light 
 and Ether. 
 
 e. The twofold Principle of the world was designated bv the Pagans 
 " Light" and " Darkness ■" the better Principle or Light they desig- 
 nated " God," and the inferior " Demon /' and the Chinese hold this 
 twofold Principle, designating the Light or better Principle " Shin," 
 and the inferior one or Darkness " Demon." Also, the Chinese, in 
 common with the rest of the Pagans, designate the Light " Good," and 
 the Darkness " Evil." 
 
 f. The Light or " God" vvas the i/^«'X'/ Koa/^iov, and was designated 
 Jupiter ; and the Chinese hold the Light or " Shin" to be the \!'i'X'/ 
 Koa^tov, and designate it Shang-te. 
 
 I/, The Pagans considered the soul in man to be a portion of this 
 Y'l'XV iioaf.iov or " God," and hence they designated it Geo?, Deus, or 
 " God ; and the Chinese consider the soul to be a portion of the V'*'X'y 
 KOfffiov or " Shin," and hence they designate it " Shin," 
 
 It is unnecessary to pursue this parallel further ; sufficient has, I 
 think, been stated to show that the meaning of the terms Qeos^ and 
 Deus must be affected by the meaning attached tu the Chinese terra 
 " Shin /' so that, if the latter must be regarded, from its use in the 
 Chinese Classics, as signifying 'Spirit," and not "God," so must the 
 former be also regarded as signifying " Spirit," and not " God ;" for 
 no material difference can be found in the application of these several 
 terms in the Chinese and other Pagan systems. 
 
 With regard to the term " Spirit," it appears to me hopeless for 
 any one to expect to find amongst Pagan writers a term signifying 
 "Spirit" in our Christian sense of that term. The Heathen have no 
 idea of any nearer approximation to pure spirit than very subtle ether. 
 Neither the Greek Wucv/na, nor the Latin " Spiritus," signified Spirit in 
 our sense of that term, until Christianity gave them that higher appli- 
 cation. As to Angels anS. Spirits, we are indebted, as Mr. Locke 
 observes^ to Bevclation, for our knowledge of the existence of these 
 Beings; so that, to regard the "Shin" of China (amongst whom are 
 ranked Trees, Birds, and Beusls,. lSLc.) as " immaterial Spirits," or 
 " Angels," is, to say the least of so extraordinary a statement, giving 
 tlie Chinese credit for a kuovvledge which they do not possess.. (See 
 Legge's "Notions of the Chinese," i.\.c., p. 14.9, and Medhurst's "In- 
 quiry," &c., pp. 146.-7. 
 
 If, as in the case of "Shin," we investigate the meaning and 
 
426 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 application of the Chinese term " Ling," we shall find that it cor- 
 responds accurately to the terms Trvcvfiu and spiritus as used by the 
 Pagan Greeks and Romans. 
 
 The twofold soul in man and in the world is anima and i/^j'X'? i 
 the former being designated by the Chinese, Greeks, and Romans, 
 " Demon," and the latter being designated by these Pagans respec- 
 tively "Shin" " eeov," and " Deus." As the "Yin," or inferior 
 principle always "confers body," the anima or Yin-soul is the ethereal 
 lodij of the rational soul. Such was also the idea of the Platonists, 
 Pythagoreans, and others. Hence in China, as in other Pagan nations, 
 the demons in Hades are represented in human form. 
 
 a. Although both souls were by Western philosophers designate<l 
 TTvevfia, yet this was the proper appellation of the anima ; and in 
 China also, although both souls are designated " Ling," yet this, like 
 irvevfia, is the proper appellation of the anima ; e.ff., 
 
 " Tlie clear K'e of the yang {i.e. the V^/'Xv) is called Shin (God), 
 and the clear K'e of the Yin {i.e. the anima), is called Ling (Spirit)." — 
 Kang-he. 
 
 These " Ling " or Simulacra were, 
 
 " The Trvevfia-Ta of Homer, which Ulysses beheld in the lower 
 regions, or spirits representing the form of the human bod)/." — Cud- 
 worth, vol. iii., p. 284, 7iote. 
 
 b. These " Ling" are material, e.g., 
 
 " That which makes the p'hih, anima or sensitive soul, difi'ers from 
 the h'wan, rational soul, is that the anima is matter," &c. — Medhurst's 
 Inquiry, &c., p. 101, 
 
 And, of the term irvev^ia, Dr. Mosheim says, 
 
 " I have already more than once remarked, that this word in 
 ancient authors frequently means, not ivhat ive call spirit, but a thin, 
 subtle, nature, resembling a shadow rather than a body, and yet con- 
 sisting of a certain matter." — Cud worth, vol. iii., p. 370, note. 
 
 c. Kang-he states that the Ling, or anima, is " man's animal 
 spirits," and we learn from the Chun Tsew of Confucius, and elsewhere, 
 that it is nourished by animal food, such was also the wvcvua, or 
 anima, of the Western Pagans, e.g., 
 
 " . . . . blood is the food .... of the Trvevfia, i.e., that subtle 
 body called the animal spirits." — Ibid. p. 266. 
 
 Thus the very same thing, which was designated in the West "Trrevfta" 
 and " Spiritus," is designated " Ling " by the Chinese ; hence these 
 three terms correspond, and, as the Apostles taught their hearers to 
 apply the term Trinvfia in a higher sense than they were previously 
 accustomed to do, so must the Missionary of the present day teach the 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 427 
 
 Chinese a higher and more uoble application of the term "Ling," tha» 
 they are capable of discovering by the mere light of nature. 
 
 3. In what has been stated regarding the application of the word 
 " Heaven," in the Chinese Classics, by two of the most voluminous 
 writers on the controversy, we have another example of the necessity 
 of investigating the meaning attached to so important a term by the 
 Chinese themselves. From want of caution on this point, these authors 
 have fallen into the mistake of considering that the Chinese use the 
 appellation " Heaven," just as Christians do. One of these writers 
 says on this point, 
 
 " In this application of the word Heaven to the Supreme {i.e., 
 Shang-te), the Chinese are not singular. It is used in the sacred 
 Scriptures by metonomy for the Divinity." — Medhurst's Inquiry, 
 &c., p. 20. 
 
 The other writer alluded to, speaking of the application of the 
 term " Heaven " to Shang-te in the Classics, says, 
 
 " It is a mode of speech which \ia,sthe sanction of the Bible — which 
 the blessed Saviour Himself did not disdain to employ." — Legge's 
 Notions, &c., p. 38. 
 
 From these statements it is evident that these authors are not 
 aware that Shang-te, or Mind, is a Soul, and not a personal Being, 
 distinct from matter, or they would not have fallen into the mistake 
 of imagining that the Holy Scriptures and the Chinese Classics speak 
 of the same thing — " Jehovah," under the same title — " Heaven." 
 And yet, it seems strange that these writers should not have suspected 
 the truth on this point, for they both quote the statements of the 
 Classics that Shang-te governs the world as the soul does the body in 
 Man. 
 
 4. From the Chinese sysem of Cosmogony laid before the reader 
 in the previous pages, it will be seen that Shaug-te is the identical 
 " Great Father," or Adam re-appearing in Noah, worshipped by the 
 whole Pagan world, and which idolatrous worship was set up on the 
 plain of Shinar, whence each nation (and amongst the rest the founders 
 of the Chinese Empire), carried it to the several countries in which 
 they settled after the confusion of tongues and the consequent dis- 
 persion. Shang-te, notwithstanding his high-sounding titles, must 
 therefore take his place with Baal, Jupiter, Osiris, &c., all of whom 
 were the "Great Father," or First Man. 
 
 This " Great Father," however, has frequently been mistaken for 
 the true God, in consequence of the attributes which belong to Jehovah 
 alone being given to him by his votaries. This mistake has been 
 made also by those Missionaries in China who consider that the wor- 
 
428 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 ship of Sliangte ought to be sanctioned by the Chinese Scriptures. Of 
 the two writers above alluded to, one, captivated by Shang-te's attri- 
 butes and titles, unhesitatingly pronounces him to be " God over all 
 hlessed for ever ;" while the other, more timidly, declares him to be 
 the true God, " as far as the Chinese Jciioiv him," whatever that quali- 
 fication may mean. On this subject, Mr. Faber says, 
 
 " Some writers of note .... from some remarkable expressions 
 which have been used by Gentile authors in various countries, and 
 which in their legitimate acceptation can only be applied with pro- 
 priety to the Supreme Being .... have inferred that the true God 
 was the object of pagan, no less than of Jewish and Christian venera- 
 tion, though his attributes were disguised and his worship was debased 
 by much vanity and superstition, &c. 
 
 "■ But this, so far as I can judge, is wholly insufficient to establish 
 the hypothesis, that the chief deity of the Gentiles was truly and 
 properly Jehovah, acknowledged as the Creator of the world, though 
 dimly viewed through the mist of polytheistic absurdity. The mere 
 ascription of certain attributes of Jehovah to that deity icill not pi'ove 
 their identity ; nor can it set aside the apostolic declaration, that hy 
 their wisdom the heathens knew not God, and that to all intents and 
 purposes they were no better than atheists." — Faber"s Orig, Sec, 
 vol. i., p. 54. 
 
 One of the above-mentioned writers on the Chinese controversy, 
 has even gone so far as to assert that the triplication of Shang-te into 
 "Heaven, Earth, and Man," bears "some allusion to the mysterious 
 doctrine of the Trinity, which may have been derived by tradition 
 from the patriarchal age." (Medhurst's " Theology of the Chinese," 
 p. 85.) This writer, however, is not the only Missionary who has 
 fallen into this error concerning the " Great Father," as the following 
 statement of Sir William Jones will show : 
 
 " Very respectable natives have assured nie, that one or two 
 missionaries have been absurd enough, in their zeal for the conversion 
 of the Gentiles, to urge that the Hindoos were even now almost 
 Christians because their Brahma, Vishnou, and Mabesa were no other 
 than the Christian Trinity ; a sentence in which we can only doubt 
 whether folly, ignorance, or impiety ])redominates. The tenet of our 
 Church cannot, without profaneness, be compared with that of the 
 Hindoos, which has only an apparent resemblance to it, but a very 
 different meaning." 
 
 Mr. Faber, while he considers this censure of Sir W. Jones too 
 ficvere, remarks, 
 
 "An examination" of these Triads '" seems to me very clearly to 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 429 
 
 prove that they have no sort of relation whatever to the Christian doc- 
 trine of the Trinity, but that they sprang from a totally difleront 
 source." — Ibid. p. ix, and note. 
 
 From all these instances of mistake respecting the Chinese system, 
 we may perceive the necessity, in translating and interpreting Heathen 
 authors, of observing the useful caution given by Dr. Mosheim, viz., 
 that 
 
 " Those who read the works of ancient authors, and meet with the 
 words vovs aaw/iiaru^, simplex, &c., &c., therein, should take care not 
 necessarily to consider them as conveying the same idea as that which 
 tee attach to them in reference to God, Soul, and things divine" — 
 Cudworth, vol. i., p. 54, note. 
 
 Having already shown who Shang-te really is, and that he is 
 merely the animated Universe composed of Mind and Matter, it is 
 unnecessary to dwell upon the impiety and danger of sanctioning the 
 worship of such a Being in the Holy Scriptures. It is much to be 
 regretted that one million of New Testaments are now being printed 
 in China by some of the Missionaries, with the funds of the Bible 
 Society, in which the designation "Shang-te" is inserted wherever 
 Geos occurs in the original, and the term " Shin " is used as the trans- 
 lation of irvevfxa : SO that, as the Confucian Classics inculcate the wor- 
 ship of Shang-te, so do the Holy Scriptures ; and both the Classics 
 and the Scriptures, by this use of the term " Shin," inculcate ])an- 
 theism. Let the reader imagine what would be the effect of inserting 
 the word " Jupiter," in our version of the Scriptures, wherever the 
 word " God " occurs, and the word " God " wherever " spirit " or 
 " soul " occurs, and he will then be able to form some idea of the 
 notion of Christianity which the Chinese are likely to derive from the 
 "million Testaments" now in process of printing." No amount of 
 divine attributes bestowed upon Shang-te, who is really a Man, can 
 ever make him to be the Infinite Jehovah. Jehovah is the only true 
 " SuiN," and beside Him there is no other. 
 
 I could, if it were necessary, state many instances in which the 
 Chinese readers of Christian tracts, and of the New Testament, ou 
 being interrogated as to whom they isupposed the Shang-te mentioned, 
 therein to be, have unhesitatingly replied " Heaven and Earth ;" and 
 who have as unhesitatingly stated that " Jesus is the son of Heaven 
 and Earth," i.e., the Hermaphroditic Shang-te. Instead, however, of 
 dwelling upon such cases, I shall merely allude to one of the most re- 
 markable instances of the danger of preaching and teaching the 
 worship of Shang-te — I mean that of the Insurgents. These men have 
 been confirmed in the worship of Shan^-te by various tracts and books 
 
430 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 circulated amongst them, and also by the preaching of Missionaries. 
 They have received this teaching and have adopted the doctrines incul- 
 cated. They have even printed large portions of a Bible, in which 
 Shang-te takes the place of Jehovah, and hence in their published 
 works they designate the Being whom they worship, indifferently, 
 "Shang-te," or "Jehovah." They state that we foreigners have 
 brought no new doctrine to them, for that both Chinese and foreigners 
 have always worshipped the same Being, viz., Shang-te. These men 
 are, I suppose, as well instructed in the Scriptures, and in the doctrines 
 therein inculcated, as any others in China who derive their knowledge 
 from the same source ; indeed, judging from the translations of their 
 books which have appeared in newspapers, &.C., we should consider 
 them to be perfect Christians if we were not aware that these trans- 
 lations make them appear, as Dr. Mosheim says, " not as they really 
 ore, but such as they ivould have been had they been educated in our 
 schools." 
 
 Whom then do these men suppose the Shang-te of their Scriptures, 
 and the Being preached to them by the Missionaries, to be 1 Let them 
 answer this question for themselves. In speaking of the origin of 
 souls, they say, 
 
 " Whence are generated, and whence come forth the souls (of 
 men) 1 These are all conferred by Imperial Shang-te, the original 
 K'e, whence they are generated and come forth. Hence it is said (in 
 the Classics), that one Root {i.e., Shang-te or Mind) scattered and 
 became innumerable radii (i.e., Souls) and these innumerable radii all 
 revert to one Root," viz., Pater iEther or Shang-te. (See also Sing-le- 
 ta-tseuen, ch. xxxiv, pp. 19, 21.) — T'ae-ping Chaou Shoo, p. 10. 
 
 " Hence man being formed by the creative energy of Heaven and 
 Earth {i.e. Shang-te), in the course of nature derives his birth from his 
 parents at the fixed period," &.c. — Proclamation of Lew, Great Gene- 
 ralissimo of the T'ae-ping Celestial Empire. North China Herald, 
 May 20th, 1854. 
 
 Thus it appears that the Insurgents, led astray by the preaching of 
 some of the Missionaries (however unintentionally) and also by the 
 Bibles in their possession, declare the Shang-te of the Confucian 
 Classics, who is worshipped at the round hillock at Pekin, to be nur 
 Jehovah, and consider both to be the subtle Ether (K'e) or Mind, 
 inherent in Heaven, Earth, Man, and all things. Hence in their San 
 Tsze King, they designate Shang-te the " Hwan foo," literally "the 
 rational soul father," i.e., either the >/'i'X'/ ko^hov designated "Father" 
 in the Classics, or, the Father of the rational souls of men which are, 
 as has been shown deccrpted portions of Shaug-te himself or the subtle 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. ' 431 
 
 Etlier. In this error, it seems, these men in common with the rest of 
 their countrymen, are now to be confirmed by a million of New 
 Testaments. 
 
 From what is stated in the Chinese system with regard to the two 
 Principles of the Universe, it is plain that these are the two Persian 
 Principles of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. The Light is the 
 good God or Shang-te proper, the rational soul of the world, who is 
 opposed by the evil Demon, and who is regarded as the framer of the 
 world. At each return of all things to Chaos, the Darkness or evil 
 Principle envelops the Light and overcomes him for a time, producing 
 destruction and death. That this Light or Shang-te is not the true 
 God, is plain from what is said of him ; and we have also the direct 
 testimony of Scripture on this point, e.g. : 
 
 "Holy Scripture at once testifies the remote antiquity of such 
 speculations ; and decidedly proves that the pure light or good prin- 
 ciple of the Persians was not the true God, as some have imagined; but 
 no less than the thick darkness or evil principle a mere creature. In 
 the address of Jehovah to Cyrus his anointed, he is represented as 
 saying, in manifest allusion to the philosophy of the Magi : I am the 
 Lord, and there is none else. Iform the light and create the darkness; 
 1 make the peace and create the evil. I the Lord do all these things'' 
 Isaiah xlv., 6, 7. "l!h.Q peace or harmony of the renovated world ^ the 
 evil or confusion of the dissolved world."— Faber's Orig., &c., vol. iii., 
 p. .98, and note. 
 
 An attempt to graft this Philosophy of the Magi upon Christianity 
 gave rise to the heresy of Manes, Cerinthus, &c. Manes held that all 
 things proceeded from two principles; the one "a pure and most 
 subtle matter called Light, and the other a gross and corrupt substance 
 called Darkness." He held that there were two souls in man, " one 
 of which is sensitive and lustful, and owes its existence to the evil 
 principle ; the other rational and immortal, a particle of ' the divine 
 light.' " He considered that Jesus Christ is " a most splendid sub- 
 stance, consisting of the brightness of the eternal Light ;" that " his 
 residence is in the Sun," and that the Holy Ghost is "a luminous and 
 animated body difi'used throughout every part of the atmosphere 
 which surrounds this terrestrial globe. This genial principle warms 
 and illuminates the minds of men, renders also the earth fruitful," &c. 
 — Mosheim's Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p. 174, &c. 
 
 Now it appears to me that in consequence of preaching the worship 
 of Shang-te in China, the Insurgents have fallen into this heresy of 
 the Manacheans. Their Shang-te, or the Light, they are taught is 
 
432 CHINESE THEOLOGY, 
 
 " God over all blessed for ever," and God "as far as the Chinese know 
 him." They are assured that Jesus Christ is also Shang-te; and that 
 the Holy Ghost is also Shang-te. Xow the term used for the Holy 
 Ghost is " Shing Shin" (literally " Holy (5oc('"), and they are taught 
 that the soul is also proix'rlij called " Shin" (Geo? or Deus). Hence as 
 their Scriptures tell them that the " Holy Shin" (who inhabits the 
 outer circle of the Universe and pervades and animates it, iii., 10,) 
 resides in them, and that their souls are truly and properly termed 
 "Shiu," they naturally conclude that their souls are portions of 
 Shang-te, the Light, or Holy Ghost (iv., 2, b). Hence, as their 
 Classics teach them that a greater portion of this Y^i'X'/ '-on^iov resides 
 in Princes, they regard them as being Shang-tes or Jehovahs. Thus, 
 in a tract lately printed, we find the " celestial king" addressing the 
 eastern prince Yang thus, " When our celestial elder brother Jesus, 
 in obedience to the commands of our heavenly Father, came down into 
 the world, in the country of Judea, He addressed His disciples, saying, 
 at some future day the Comforter will come into the world. Now I, 
 your second elder brother, considering what you brother Tsing have 
 reported to me, and observing what you have done, must consider that 
 the Comforter and the Holy Ghost spoken of by our celestial elder 
 brother is none other than yourself.''^ 
 
 Such is the result of an attempt to discover the Jehovah of the 
 Holy Scriptures in the Heathen Chinese Classics. Nor can I see how 
 those who teach the Insurgents to worship Shang-te can consistently 
 charge them with " Blasphemy," for making such statements as the 
 above, which are in their minds, but legitimate consequences of the 
 statements made in the million of New Testaments. 
 
 Nor indeed can I see how, if this course of teaching be persisted 
 in, the Chinese will be able to understand the simplest statements of 
 the Gospel. Take, for instance, that beautiful passage, John iii., 16, 
 which in the Chinese version in the hands of the Insurgents reads 
 thus, " Shang-te so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten 
 Son," &c. Now, not to mention the fact that Shang-te never did 
 " love the world," and that he is not " the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," the statement in this passage, according to Chinese ideas, will 
 merely mean, as I have frctpiently hoard the Chinese inter])ret it, that 
 Jesus Christ is " the Son of Heaven and Earth" or the Henuaphro- 
 ditic Shang-te, and that He is our " Chief Sage," in whom (like Con- 
 fucius and others) dwells a greater portion of the Y'^'X'/ ''"<"^/""' than in 
 others, and in whom we are bound to believe, just as they "believe in 
 Confucius." Hence the Ciiinese rcidily assnil to the statement th:it 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 433 
 
 " Jesus is Shang-te," because they consider that our Saviour, being 
 the Son of Heaven and Earth, is, like their sages, tlie human repre- 
 sentation of this Hermaphroditic Shang-te. 
 
 I trust that the time is not far distant when all erroneous preach- 
 ing and teaching shall cease in China, and when the Chinese shall 
 be taught by all Missionaries to know Him " whose name alone is 
 Jehovah {not Shang-te), and who has Himself said, " I am Jehovah ; 
 that is my name : and my glory ivill I not rjive to another ^^ &c. — Isa. 
 xlii., 8. 
 
 The authority chiefly quoted in the preceding pages is the cele- 
 brated Chinese Philosopher Choo-foo-tsze, who is the most voluminous 
 commentator on the Classics, and whom I have chosen, chiefly because 
 bis works have been appealed to by the writers on both sides of the 
 controversy. This Philosopher lived about 700 years ago, and the 
 estimation in which he is held by the Chinese may be gathered from 
 the following eulogium passed upon him by the oldest student of 
 Chinese at present in China : — • 
 
 " .... Choo-foo-tsze, the learned commentator on the Four Books 
 and the elucidator of the five Classics, who, by fixing the sense of the 
 standard writings of the Chinese, has created, as it were, the mind of 
 China, and established a system from which all subsequent writers 
 have borrowed, and according to which all modern essayists must be 
 conformed or they cannot succeed at the literary examinations through 
 which alone distinction and power can be attained. The opinions 
 of Choo-foo-tsze therefore constitute the orthodoxi/ of China, and all 
 who diflfer from him are considered heterodox, insomuch that some 
 modern writers who have dared to dissent from his views have not 
 only failed in obtaining ofiice, but have also been prevented through 
 fear of persecution from publishing their lucubrations." — Medhurst's 
 Theology, &c., p. 162. 
 
 Choo-tsze, however, has introduced no new system, as appears 
 from the following : — 
 
 " As it regards the learning of Confucius, Choo alone, say the 
 Chinese historians, fully comprehended its true import ; and has trans- 
 mitted it to future generations so jjcrfect and immaculate that were 
 Confucius himself, or any of the ancient sages, to come back to life, 
 they would not alter what he has written," — Chinese Repository, 
 vol. xviii., p. 204. 
 
 The Yih-king, from which Choo-tsze derives his opinions on 
 Cosmogony, was composed by Wan Wang, about B.C. 1150. The 
 history of the formation of the Universe is given in this ancient Classic 
 in numbers, according to the Pythagorean system. Number One, or 
 
434 CHINESE THEOLOGY. 
 
 as it is called, " Supreme One," is the cliief God, or Sliang-tc, being 
 the first Deity generated from Chaos ; number Tivo, or Duality, is 
 Matter; and number Three is the union of these two, forming the 
 complete animated Universe, or First Man. This is the Triad. The 
 formation of the Ogdoad is as follows : — 
 
 " The Great Extreme {i e. the eternal, animated K'e) generated 
 the Two E, {i. e. Light and Darkness, or two-fold Mind) ; the Two E 
 generated the four simulacra {i. e. each soul generated a body : the 
 yfrvxr} generated Heaven, the aniraa Earth; making /oz/y things in all), 
 and the four simulacra generated the Eight Diagrams," (/. e. the 
 two-fold soul uniting with the two-fold body formed the Great Father 
 and Mother, Keen and Kwun, or Heaven and Earth animated ; and 
 these generated the " six children.") — Yih-king, vol. ii., ch. xiv., p. 25. 
 
 The difference between the views of Laon-tsze, the founder of the 
 Taonist sect, and those of Confucius on Cosmogony, may be gathered 
 from the following passage in which Choo-tsze alludes to the doctrine 
 of the former and dissents from it : — 
 
 " Reason is the Great Extreme of the Yih-king ; the odd number 
 One is the Yang (animated Heaven, or Shang-te) ; the even number 
 Two is the Yin (animated Earth, his Wife) ; Three is the odd and 
 even number united (the complete Hennaphroditic Shang-te, or First 
 Man). When it is said that Two generated Three, this means that 
 Two and One form Three. Taking One to be the Great Extreme, 
 then thei-e is no necessity to sai/ that Reason generated One" — Choo- 
 tsze's Works, T'ae-keih, sentence 43. 
 
 The Great Extreme, or " One," who generates all things from 
 himself, is, as we have seen, the i/^e'X'/ KOfrf^tov, or Shang-te, whose 
 body is Heaven, or the World, and which Choo-tsze himself states to 
 have been eternally generated by the Incorporeal Great Extreme, or 
 Reason, i.e., the God, kot e^oxijv (i., 3). This Divine Reason now 
 uniting with " One," or Shang-te, makes him to be an Intelligent 
 Mind, so that these two, viz., Reason and Mind, being henceforth ono 
 complete Being, Choo-tsze considers it " unnecessary to say" that 
 Mind is generated by Reason, both being thus eternally united, and 
 one being unable to exist without the other. Laou-tsze, however, 
 seems on all occasions, to have stated the distinctness of the Divine 
 Reason and Mind, or Shang-te, and to have always insisted on the 
 priority of the former, e. g. : — 
 
 " I do not know whose son it (i. e., the Divine Reason) is : it is 
 prior to the (Supreme) Ruler of the visible (heavens'*," t. e., Shang-te. 
 —Medhurst's Theology, &c., p. 246. 
 
 Heuco it is probable that Laou-tsze, although he held the eternity 
 
CHINESE THEOLOGY. 435 
 
 of matter, yet did not make the Divine Reason (God) dependent upon 
 it, as the Confucianists do. These two sects, however, are alike in one 
 respect, namely, that they both pay divine honours to Shang-te, the 
 second God, or Demiurge, and thus " worship and serve the creature 
 more than the Creator." That the three sects, viz., the Confucianists, 
 Taouists, and Buddhists in reality worship the same Being as their 
 chief God, appears from the following legend : 
 
 " The Lotus once floated the Star Supreme One (i. e., Shang-te)." 
 Comment. — " During the Han Dynasty, in the reign of the 
 Emperor Woo, there was a man seen in the midst of the sea, who had 
 two hornsy a face lilce a gem, and a flowing beard ; his loins were en- 
 circled with the leaves of a tree, and he reclined in a lotus leaf, more 
 than 100 feet in length. In his hand he held a hook, and he floated 
 up the East sea. Suddenly he disappeared in a fog, and what became 
 of him is unknown. (The Philosopher) Tung Fang-soh says, that this 
 "was the star ' Supreme One.' " 
 
 In this Being, who is the Classical Shang-t^, or " Supreme One," 
 whose chariot is said to be Ursa Major, we see combined the genimy 
 face of the Taouist Shang-te, and he is seated on a leaf of the Lotus, 
 which is sacred to Buddha. The " sea" represents the waters of the 
 Deluge, on which this " Great Father" of the Pagan world, the horned 
 Jupiter, reclines in the Ark, "in profound meditation," until the time 
 arrives when he must arouse himself, and form a new world or Body 
 from chaos. — (As to the antiquity of Buddhism, see Faber's Orig., &c, 
 vol. i., pp. 86, &c.) 
 
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